1setproctitle(3bsd) LOCAL setproctitle(3bsd)
2
4 setproctitle — set process title
5
7 Utility functions from BSD systems (libbsd, -lbsd)
8
10 #include <sys/types.h>
11 #include <unistd.h>
12 (See libbsd(7) for include usage.)
13 void
15 setproctitle_init(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[]);
16 void
18 setproctitle(const char *fmt, ...);
19
21 The setproctitle() library routine sets the process title that appears on
22 the ps(1) command.
23 The setproctitle_init() library routine only needs to be called (before
25 any call to setproctitle() and with main() arguments), if the automatic
26 constructor support has not been linked in through the libbsd-ctor pkg‐
27 conf file.
28 The title is set from the executable's name, followed by the result of a
30 printf(3) style expansion of the arguments as specified by the fmt argu‐
31 ment. If the fmt argument begins with a “-” character, the executable's
32 name is skipped.
33 If fmt is NULL, the process title is restored.
35
37 To set the title on a daemon to indicate its activity:
38 setproctitle("talking to %s", inet_ntoa(addr));
40
42 ps(1), w(1), kvm(3), kvm_getargv(3), printf(3)
43
45 The setproctitle() function is implicitly non-standard. Other methods of
46 causing the ps(1) command line to change, including copying over the
47 argv[0] string are also implicitly non-portable. It is preferable to use
48 an operating system supplied setproctitle() if present.
49 Unfortunately, it is possible that there are other calling conventions to
51 other versions of setproctitle(), although none have been found by the
52 author as yet. This is believed to be the predominant convention.
53 It is thought that the implementation is compatible with other systems,
55 including NetBSD and BSD/OS.
56
58 The setproctitle() function first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2. Other operat‐
59 ing systems have similar functions.
60 The setproctitle_init() function is a libbsd extension not present on the
62 BSDs; avoid using it in portable code.
63
65 Peter Wemm <peter@FreeBSD.org> stole the idea from the Sendmail 8.7.3
66 source code by Eric Allman <eric@sendmail.org>.
67
69 Never pass a string with user-supplied data as a format without using
70 ‘%s’. An attacker can put format specifiers in the string to mangle your
71 stack, leading to a possible security hole. This holds true even if the
72 string was built using a function like snprintf(), as the resulting
73 string may still contain user-supplied conversion specifiers for later
74 interpolation by setproctitle().
75 Always use the proper secure idiom:
77 setproctitle("%s", string);
79BSD December 16, 1995 BSD