How do I get the path of a process in Unix / Linux

Solution 1:

On Linux, the symlink /proc/<pid>/exe has the path of the executable. Use the command readlink -f /proc/<pid>/exe to get the value.

On AIX, this file does not exist. You could compare cksum <actual path to binary> and cksum /proc/<pid>/object/a.out.

Solution 2:

You can find the exe easily by these ways, just try it yourself.

• ll /proc/<PID>/exe
• pwdx <PID>
• lsof -p <PID> | grep cwd

Solution 3:

A little bit late, but all the answers were specific to linux.

If you need also unix, then you need this:

char * getExecPath (char * path,size_t dest_len, char * argv0)
{
    char * baseName = NULL;
    char * systemPath = NULL;
    char * candidateDir = NULL;

    /* the easiest case: we are in linux */
    size_t buff_len;
    if (buff_len = readlink ("/proc/self/exe", path, dest_len - 1) != -1)
    {
        path [buff_len] = '\0';
        dirname (path);
        strcat  (path, "/");
        return path;
    }

    /* Ups... not in linux, no  guarantee */

    /* check if we have something like execve("foobar", NULL, NULL) */
    if (argv0 == NULL)
    {
        /* we surrender and give current path instead */
        if (getcwd (path, dest_len) == NULL) return NULL;
        strcat  (path, "/");
        return path;
    }


    /* argv[0] */
    /* if dest_len < PATH_MAX may cause buffer overflow */
    if ((realpath (argv0, path)) && (!access (path, F_OK)))
    {
        dirname (path);
        strcat  (path, "/");
        return path;
    }

    /* Current path */
    baseName = basename (argv0);
    if (getcwd (path, dest_len - strlen (baseName) - 1) == NULL)
        return NULL;

    strcat (path, "/");
    strcat (path, baseName);
    if (access (path, F_OK) == 0)
    {
        dirname (path);
        strcat  (path, "/");
        return path;
    }

    /* Try the PATH. */
    systemPath = getenv ("PATH");
    if (systemPath != NULL)
    {
        dest_len--;
        systemPath = strdup (systemPath);
        for (candidateDir = strtok (systemPath, ":"); candidateDir != NULL; candidateDir = strtok (NULL, ":"))
        {
            strncpy (path, candidateDir, dest_len);
            strncat (path, "/", dest_len);
            strncat (path, baseName, dest_len);

            if (access(path, F_OK) == 0)
            {
                free (systemPath);
                dirname (path);
                strcat  (path, "/");
                return path;
            }
        }
        free(systemPath);
        dest_len++;
    }

    /* again someone has use execve: we dont knowe the executable name; we surrender and give instead current path */
    if (getcwd (path, dest_len - 1) == NULL) return NULL;
    strcat  (path, "/");
    return path;
}

EDITED: Fixed the bug reported by Mark lakata.

Solution 4:

I use:

ps -ef | grep 786

Replace 786 with your PID or process name.

Solution 5:

pwdx <process id>

This command will fetch the process path from where it is executing.