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| | The /proc filesystem contains
a illusionary filesystem. It does not exist on a disk.
Instead, the kernel creates it in memory. It is used to provide
information about the system (originally about processes, hence
the name). Some of the more important files and directories are
explained below. The /proc filesystem is
described in more detail in the proc manual page.
- /proc/1
A directory with information about
process number 1. Each process has a directory below
/proc with the name being its process
identification number. - /proc/cpuinfo
Information about the processor,
such as its type, make, model, and perfomance.
- /proc/devices
List of device drivers configured into the
currently running kernel. - /proc/dma
Shows which DMA channels are being used
at the moment. - /proc/filesystems
Filesystems configured into the kernel.
- /proc/interrupts
Shows which interrupts are
in use, and how many of each there have been.
- /proc/ioports
Which I/O ports are in use at the moment.
- /proc/kcore
An image of the physical memory of
the system. This is exactly the same size as your
physical memory, but does not really take up that much
memory; it is generated on the fly as programs access it.
(Remember: unless you copy it elsewhere, nothing under
/proc takes up any disk space
at all.) - /proc/kmsg
Messages output by the kernel.
These are also routed to syslog.
- /proc/ksyms
Symbol table for the kernel.
- /proc/loadavg
The `load average' of the system; three
meaningless indicators of how much work the system has
to do at the moment. - /proc/meminfo
Information about memory usage, both
physical and swap. - /proc/modules
Which kernel modules are loaded at
the moment. - /proc/net
Status information about network
protocols. - /proc/self
A symbolic link to the process
directory of the program that is looking at
/proc. When two processes look at
/proc, they get different links.
This is mainly a convenience to make it easier
for programs to get at their process directory.
- /proc/stat
Various statistics about the system, such
as the number of page faults since the system was booted.
- /proc/uptime
The time the system has been up.
- /proc/version
The kernel version.
Note that while the above files tend to be easily
readable text files, they can sometimes be formatted in a way
that is not easily digestable. There are many commands that
do little more than read the above files and format them for
easier understanding. For example, the free
program reads /proc/meminfo and converts
the amounts given in bytes to kilobytes (and adds a little more
information, as well). |