How to get current process name in linux?

Question

How can I get the process name in C? The same name, which is in /proc/$pid/status. I do not want to parse that file. Is there any programmatic way of doing this

Answer 1

Look at the value of argv[0] which was passed to main. This should be the name under which your process was invoked.

Answer 2

If you're on using a glibc, then:

#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <errno.h>

extern char *program_invocation_name;
extern char *program_invocation_short_name;

See program_invocation_name(3)

Under most Unices, __progname is also defined by the libc. The sole portable way is to use argv[0]

Answer 3

I often make use of following call,

char* currentprocname = getprogname();

Answer 4

You can use __progname. However it is not better than argv[0] as it may have portability issues. But as you do not have access to argv[0] it can work as follows:-

extern char *__progname;
printf("\n%s", __progname);

Answer 5

If you cannot access argv[] in main(), because you are implementing a library, you can have a look at my answer on a similar question here.

It basically boils down into giving you access to argc, argv[] and envp[] outside of main(). Then you could, as others have already correctly suggested, use argv[0] to retrieve the process name.

Answer 6

It's either pointed to by the argv[0] or indeed you can read /proc/self/status. Or you can use getenv("_"), not sure who sets that and how reliable it is.