man > proc_pid_exe(5)

proc_pid_exe(5)                          File Formats Manual                         proc_pid_exe(5)

NAME
       /proc/pid/exe - symbolic link to program pathname

DESCRIPTION
       /proc/pid/exe
              Under Linux 2.2 and later, this file is a symbolic link containing the actual pathname
              of  the executed command.  This symbolic link can be dereferenced normally; attempting
              to open it will open the executable.  You can even type /proc/pid/exe to  run  another
              copy  of  the  same  executable that is being run by process pid.  If the pathname has
              been unlinked, the symbolic link will contain the string ' (deleted)' appended to  the
              original pathname.  In a multithreaded process, the contents of this symbolic link are
              not  available  if  the  main  thread  has  already  terminated  (typically by calling
              pthread_exit(3)).

              Permission to dereference or read (readlink(2)) this symbolic link is  governed  by  a
              ptrace access mode PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS check; see ptrace(2).

              Under  Linux  2.0 and earlier, /proc/pid/exe is a pointer to the binary which was exe‐
              cuted, and appears as a symbolic link.  A readlink(2) call on this  file  under  Linux
              2.0 returns a string in the format:

                  [device]:inode

              For  example,  [0301]:1502 would be inode 1502 on device major 03 (IDE, MFM, etc. dri‐
              ves) minor 01 (first partition on the first drive).

              find(1) with the -inum option can be used to locate the file.

SEE ALSO
       proc(5)

Linux man-pages 6.7                          2023-08-15                              proc_pid_exe(5)