proc(5) documentation for the cmdline file

proc(5) documentation for the cmdline file

[Jeff Norden]

The following is from the current proc(5) man page:

/proc/[pid]/cmdline
    This read-only file holds the complete command line for the process,
    unless the process is a zombie.  In the latter case, there is nothing in
    this file: that is, a read on this file will return 0 characters.  The
    command-line arguments appear in this file as a set of strings separated
    by null bytes ('\0'), with a further null byte after the last string.


I believe that the end of the first sentence should say:
   "unless the process is a kernel process or a zombie."

or maybe it would read better as:
   "unless it is a kernel process or a zombie."

You might also add something like the following at the end:
   "When cmdline is empty, the stat or status file (below) can be used
    to determine whether or not a process is a zombie.

I'm no kernel expert, so please make sure this is correct.  It's just
something I noticed while poking around in /proc/

Thanks, and Happy New Years!

  -Jeff Norden, jeff@math.tntech.edu
   Dept of Math, Tenn Tech Univ, Cookeville TN 38505  (931)372-3441