NAME

       setproctitle — set process title

LIBRARY

       Utility functions from BSD systems (libbsd, -lbsd)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <unistd.h>
       (See libbsd(7) for include usage.)

       void
       setproctitle_init(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[]);

       void
       setproctitle(const char *fmt, ...);

DESCRIPTION

       The setproctitle() library routine sets the process title that appears on the ps(1) command.

       The  setproctitle_init()  library  routine only needs to be called (before any call to setproctitle() and
       with main() arguments), if the automatic constructor support has not been linked in through  the  libbsd-
       ctor pkg-config file.

       The title is set from the executable's name, followed by the result of a printf(3) style expansion of the
       arguments  as  specified  by  the  fmt  argument.   If  the fmt argument begins with a “-” character, the
       executable's name is skipped.

       If fmt is NULL, the process title is restored.

EXAMPLES

       To set the title on a daemon to indicate its activity:

             setproctitle("talking to %s", inet_ntoa(addr));

SEE ALSO

       ps(1), w(1), kvm(3), kvm_getargv(3), printf(3)

STANDARDS

       The setproctitle() function is implicitly non-standard.  Other methods of causing the ps(1) command  line
       to  change, including copying over the argv[0] string are also implicitly non-portable.  It is preferable
       to use an operating system supplied setproctitle() if present.

       Unfortunately,  it  is  possible  that  there  are  other  calling  conventions  to  other  versions   of
       setproctitle(),  although  none  have  been  found  by  the  author  as  yet.  This is believed to be the
       predominant convention.

       It is thought that the implementation is compatible with other systems, including NetBSD and BSD/OS.

HISTORY

       The setproctitle() function first  appeared  in  FreeBSD  2.2.   Other  operating  systems  have  similar
       functions.

       The  setproctitle_init()  function  is  a  libbsd  extension  not  present on the BSDs; avoid using it in
       portable code.

AUTHORS

       Peter Wemm <peter@FreeBSD.org> stole the idea  from  the  Sendmail  8.7.3  source  code  by  Eric  Allman
       <eric@sendmail.org>.

BUGS

       Never  pass  a string with user-supplied data as a format without using ‘%s’.  An attacker can put format
       specifiers in the string to mangle your stack, leading to a possible security hole.  This holds true even
       if the string was built using a function like snprintf(), as the resulting string may still contain user-
       supplied conversion specifiers for later interpolation by setproctitle().

       Always use the proper secure idiom:

             setproctitle("%s", string);

Debian                                          December 16, 1995                             SETPROCTITLE(3bsd)