PARGS(1) User Commands PARGS(1)

NAME

pargs, penv, pauxv - print process arguments, environment variables,
or auxiliary vector

SYNOPSIS

pargs [-aceFlx] [pid | core]...
pauxv [-cF] [pid | core]...
penv [-cF] [pid | core]...

DESCRIPTION

The pargs utility examines a target process or process core file and
prints arguments, environment variables and values, or the process
auxiliary vector.


pargs outputs unprintable characters as escaped octal in the format \xxx,
unless the character is one of the characters specified in the "Escape
Sequences" section of formats(7), in which case the character is printed
as specified in that section.


pargs attempts to be sensitive to the locale of the target process. If
the target process and the pargs process do not share a common character
encoding, pargs attempts to employ the iconv(3C) facility to generate a
printable version of the extracted strings. In the event that such a
conversion is impossible, strings are displayed as 7-bit ASCII.


The pauxv command is equivalent to running pargs with the -x option.


The penv command is equivalent to running pargs with the -e option.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported by pargs. Only the -c and -F options
are supported by pauxv and penv:

-a
Prints process arguments as contained in argv[] (default).


-c
Treats strings in the target process as though they were encoded
in 7-bit ASCII, regardless of the locale of the target. The use of
iconv(3C) is suppressed.


-e
Prints process environment variables and values as pointed at by
the _environ symbol or by pr_envp in /proc/pid/psinfo.


-F
Force. Grabs the target process even if another process has
control.


-l
Displays the arguments as a single command line. The command line
is printed in a manner suitable for interpretation by /bin/sh. If
the arguments contain unprintable characters, or if the target
process is in a different locale, a warning message is displayed.
The resulting command line might not be interpreted correctly by
/bin/sh.


-x
Prints process auxiliary vector.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

pid
Process ID list.


core
Process core file.

USAGE

Caution should be exercised when using the -F flag. Imposing two
controlling processes on one victim process can lead to chaos. Safety is
assured only if the primary controlling process, typically a debugger,
has stopped the victim process and the primary controlling process is
doing nothing at the moment of application of the proc tool in question.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
Successful operation.


non-zero
An error has occurred (such as no such process, permission
denied, or invalid option).

FILES

/proc/pid/*
Process information and control files.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Evolving |
+--------------------+-----------------+

SEE ALSO

proc(1), iconv(3C), proc(5), ascii(7), attributes(7), environ(7),
formats(7)

October 5, 2015 PARGS(1)