Bug 429565 – ps "comm" output does not work as advertised

Bug 429565 - ps "comm" output does not work as advertised

Summary:	ps "comm" output does not work as advertised

Status:	CLOSED CANTFIX

Aliases:	None

Product:	Fedora
Classification:	Fedora
Component:	procps (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	rawhide
Hardware:	All Linux

Priority	medium Severity low
Target Milestone:	---
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Assigned To:	Tomas Smetana
QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
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Reported:	2008-01-21 12:41 EST by Stepan Kasal
Modified:	2011-10-08 08:48 EDT (History)
CC List:	1 user (show)

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Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Last Closed:	2008-01-30 03:20:29 EST
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Description Stepan Kasal 2008-01-21 12:41:32 EST

Description of problem:
The "comm" field (real executable name) is always truncated to 15 chars, though
the man page says it ends at column 80.
Moreover, neither of the two documented ways to widen it works (option "w" nor
setting COLUMNS).

Version-Release number: procps-3.2.7-19.1.fc9

Always reproducible: "ps axo comm", "ps axwwo comm", "COLUMNS=120 ps axo comm"
The output is truncated to 15 columns, in all cases, while it should not be.

Comment 1 Tomas Smetana 2008-01-22 03:19:55 EST

You're right.  I'll take a look at it.

Comment 2 Tomas Smetana 2008-01-22 06:12:35 EST

The "comm" field is taken from /proc/<num>/stat and it's truncated even there.
I'm really not sure whether the real executable name can be retrieved somewhere
else in general.

Comment 3 Tomas Smetana 2008-01-30 03:20:29 EST

I don't think the real executable's name is written somewhere in untruncated
form.  If you don't think so, reopen.

Comment 4 Oliver Henshaw 2011-10-08 08:48:38 EDT

Noticed this bug while researching bug #744406.

It seems that the length of comm is limited to TASK_COMM_LEN, this is set to 16 by the kernel. /proc/<num>/command seems to contain the full path to the command with all arguments.

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