Command line and full screen utilities for browsing procfs, a "pseudo" file system dynamically generated by Linux to provide information about the status of entries in its process table.
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Craig Small ff05573f0d pkill: Return 0 if successfully killed process
Original report:
When trying kill a process with insufficient privileges (see blow),
pkill displays the error message “... failed: Operation not permitted”,
but returns 0. Surely it should return 3?

$ pkill syslogd ; echo $?
pkill: killing pid 373 failed: Operation not permitted
0

Return value 0 means one of more things matched. For a pgrep (which
shares code with pkill) this makes sense, there was a match. It seems
wrong for pkill to return 0 when it in fact could not do what you told
it to.  However return value 3 means a fatal error and it's not fatal.

Looking at other programs when trying to kill things it cannot kill.
shell kill returns 1, procps kill returns 1, killall returns 1, skill
returns 0 (and says it was successful!, ah well poor old skill)

The consensus seems to be that you return 1 if you cannot kill it, even
if you found it. In other words the return value for both not found and
not able to kill it is the same.

pkill only returns 0 if something was killed. This means we found a
match AND the kill() system call worked too.

References:
 https://bugs.debian.org/852758

Signed-off-by: Craig Small <csmall@enc.com.au>
2017-02-04 12:00:24 +11:00
contrib miscellaneous: clean up trailing whitespace once again 2013-04-07 18:05:01 +10:00
doc documentation: Update pids manual pages 2017-01-05 09:44:04 +11:00
Documentation miscellaneous: remove some trailing whitespace buildup 2015-06-20 07:46:23 +10:00
include tests: update template and add pids 2016-04-19 21:33:02 +10:00
lib kill: Fix free() with bad pointer on SIG-prefixed signal-name 2016-09-11 09:58:55 +10:00
man-po ps: recognize SCHED_DEADLINE 2016-11-21 21:56:37 +11:00
misc build-sys: rename the 'tools' subdirectory to 'misc' 2012-03-02 21:25:38 +11:00
po free: french translation alignment 2016-08-23 20:46:17 +10:00
proc library <stat>: input file buffer size must be dynamic 2017-01-05 06:48:38 +11:00
ps ps: finish purging those references to PIDS_WCHAN_ADDR 2017-01-04 08:29:44 +11:00
testsuite pgrep: warning about 15+ chars name only if zero matches found 2017-01-26 16:52:23 +11:00
top top: adapt the master branch XDG specification support 2017-02-04 11:07:06 +11:00
.gitignore pgrep: some coverity fixes 2016-04-27 22:50:25 +10:00
.gitlab-ci.yml test: Update gitlab CI YAML to use shared runner 2016-04-20 22:20:55 +10:00
AUTHORS Changed git site to gitlab 2015-05-10 14:57:50 +10:00
autogen.sh Fix a remaining util-linux word in autogen 2012-02-26 08:39:16 +11:00
ChangeLog Changed git site to gitlab 2015-05-10 14:57:50 +10:00
configure.ac build sys: update configure.ac for the latest autoscan 2016-07-09 12:48:28 +10:00
COPYING license: update FSF addresses 2012-03-04 08:04:24 +11:00
COPYING.LIB miscellaneous: clean up trailing whitespace once again 2013-04-07 18:05:01 +10:00
create-man-pot.sh docs: with systemd now in library, remember openproc.3 2014-07-18 20:49:57 +02:00
free.1 watch,free: interpet intervals in non-locale way 2016-07-03 16:20:48 +10:00
free.c related: change for lost 'PROCPS_' enumerator prefixes 2016-07-26 20:49:44 +10:00
INSTALL.md docs: Updated documentation 2015-05-10 17:23:54 +10:00
kill.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
kill.c kill: Correct pid type 2016-07-02 15:04:22 +10:00
Makefile.am documentation: Update pids manual pages 2017-01-05 09:44:04 +11:00
NEWS pkill: Return 0 if successfully killed process 2017-02-04 12:00:24 +11:00
pgrep.1 pkill: Return 0 if successfully killed process 2017-02-04 12:00:24 +11:00
pgrep.c pkill: Return 0 if successfully killed process 2017-02-04 12:00:24 +11:00
pidof.1 pidof: support for omitted %PPID and additional separators 2013-10-14 15:38:33 +02:00
pidof.c related: respond to VAL macro addition of context parm 2016-08-07 21:40:48 +10:00
pkill.1
pmap.1 pmap: Including -p in the man page 2013-11-26 13:45:22 +01:00
pmap.c pmap: fix printing bug associated with the '-x' option 2016-09-11 09:31:05 +10:00
pwdx.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
pwdx.c Handle out of memory conditions. 2015-07-11 21:28:47 +02:00
README.md misc: eliminate accumulated trailing whitespace, again 2016-03-12 14:53:53 +11:00
skill.1 skill: support namespaces 2013-04-18 13:59:44 -04:00
skill.c skill: fixup inconsistencies in result type references 2016-08-11 07:57:55 +10:00
slabtop.1 procps: Add a zero-width break point in slabtop.1 2015-06-01 22:04:40 +10:00
slabtop.c misc: use 'VAL' macros to benefit from type validation 2016-08-16 21:06:18 +10:00
snice.1
sysctl.8 docs: Fix typos in slabtop.1, sysctl.8 and uptime.1 2014-09-16 19:35:28 +02:00
sysctl.c sysctl.c: use strchr() instead of index() 2016-08-15 21:14:23 +10:00
sysctl.conf docs: remove tcp_default_win_scale from sysctl.conf sample 2012-01-24 22:34:12 +01:00
sysctl.conf.5 misc: remove some newly introduced trailing whitespace 2016-09-26 07:40:45 +10:00
tload.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
tload.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
translate-man.sh Fixed translate-man.sh for no top ps 2014-05-28 20:12:33 +10:00
uptime.1 docs: Fix typos in slabtop.1, sysctl.8 and uptime.1 2014-09-16 19:35:28 +02:00
uptime.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
vmstat.8 library: reverting tmpfs subtraction from cached (18-FEB-2014) 2014-04-30 13:59:34 +02:00
vmstat.c misc: use 'VAL' macros to benefit from type validation 2016-08-16 21:06:18 +10:00
w.1 w: correct program help & man page regarding arguments 2015-09-07 18:11:48 +10:00
w.c related: fix inconsistencies in result type references 2016-08-07 21:40:48 +10:00
watch.1 documentation: Update watch man page 2016-07-03 16:20:58 +10:00
watch.c watch: fix process_ansi typo 2016-07-10 07:45:56 +10:00

build status procps

procps is a set of command line and full-screen utilities that provide information out of the pseudo-filesystem most commonly located at /proc. This filesystem provides a simple interface to the kernel data structures. The programs of procps generally concentrate on the structures that describe the processess running on the system.

The following programs are found in procps:

  • free - Report the amount of free and used memory in the system
  • kill - Send a signal to a process based on PID
  • pgrep - List processes based on name or other attributes
  • pkill - Send a signal to a process based on name or other attributes
  • pmap - Report memory map of a process
  • ps - Report information of processes
  • pwdx - Report current directory of a process
  • skill - Obsolete version of pgrep/pkill
  • slabtop - Display kernel slab cache information in real time
  • snice - Renice a process
  • sysctl - Read or Write kernel parameters at run-time
  • tload - Graphical representation of system load average
  • top - Dynamic real-time view of running processes
  • uptime - Display how long the system has been running
  • vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
  • w - Report logged in users and what they are doing
  • watch - Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen

Reporting Bugs

There are a few ways of reporting bugs or feature requests:

  1. Your distributions bug reporter. If you are using a distribution your first port of call is their bug tracker. This is because each distribution has their own patches and way of dealing with bugs. Also bug reporting often does not need any subscription to websites.
  2. GitLab Issues - To the left of this page is the issue tracker. You can report bugs here.
  3. Email list - We have an email list (see below) where you can report bugs. The problem with this method is bug reports often get lost and cannot be tracked. This is especially a big problem when its something that will take time to resolve.

If you need to report bugs, there is more details on the Bug Reporting page.

Email List

The email list for the developers and users of procps is found at http://www.freelists.org/archive/procps/ This email list discusses the development of procps and is used by distributions to also forward or discuss bugs.