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If I have multiple copies of the same application on the disk, and only one is running, as I can see with ps, how can I know the absolute path to distinguish it from the others?
Jader Dias
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 13 660
How can I know the absolute path of a running process?
Answers
117
% sudo ls -l /proc/PID/exe
eg:
% ps -auxwe | grep 24466 root 24466 0.0 0.0 1476 280 ? S 2009 0:00 supervise sshd % sudo ls -l /proc/24466/exe lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Feb 1 18:05 /proc/24466/exe -> /package/admin/daemontools-0.76/command/supervise
akira
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 52 754
21
Use:
pwdx $pid
This gives you the current working directory of the pid, not its absolute path.
Usually the which command will tell you which is being invoked from the shell:
#> which vlc
/usr/bin/vlc
seenu
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 237
3this answer need more upvote.. – Kokizzu – 2015-01-30T03:02:24.617
8@Kokizzu No, it doesn't because it doesn't answer the question at all. The which command only tells you which binary will be run if you execute the command now. The question was "which binary is already running there". Imagine for example having a dozen jdks on your computer. If you want to know for a running java process which jdk it's been taken from, which doesn't help you with that. It will only tell you which jdk it will be taken from, if you execute it now.
The accepted answer is also the correct one. – noamik – 2016-02-18T09:05:37.000
An obvious way this answer is wrong: on my machine I run processes with different JDK versions and some 32bits/64bits. If I want to identify the correct jstack/jmap version for the process the answer above will not work while the accepted answer will. – Daniel Da Cunha – 2016-12-07T07:36:01.117
@Kokizzu This only answers the question, "What is the current working directory of the process $pid?" The edited post still doesn't answer the question. which merely tells "If the command is on the path, then what is it?" – John Strood – 2018-06-05T11:42:23.937
pwdx return me the absolute path of the exectuable program of the process depending on pid on redhat x64 6.3. – Nick Dong – 2018-12-30T06:05:47.893
14
One way is ps -ef
fpmurphy
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 1 260
6didn't work for a specific service, it just provide the relative path – Jader Dias – 2010-02-01T16:57:24.127
Helped me identify a process via the command it was started with. – jpierson – 2016-02-09T18:50:10.623
4
Jader Dias
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 13 660
2does not show ALL full qualified paths on my linux: "root 24466 0.0 0.0 1476 280 ? S 2009 0:00 supervise sshd " for example – akira – 2010-02-01T17:04:01.990
This is more accurate than the other answers... maybe not as useful, but more the right answer. Upvoted. – John Hunt – 2017-08-30T14:55:15.677
3
lsof is an option. You can try something like below:
lsof -p PROCESS_ID
This will list all the files opened by the process including the executable's actual location. It is then possible to add a few more awk, cut, grep etc. to find out the information that you are looking for.
As an example, I executed the following commands to identify where my 'java' process came from:
lsof -p 12345 | awk '{print $NF}' | grep 'java$'
ram
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 31
How is this different than already posted answers exactly? – Pimp Juice IT – 2017-10-09T16:10:03.033
2
The quick answer is to use ps with options or the /proc filesystem info. That will usually work, but is not guaranteed. In general, there is no definite, guaranteed answer. For instance, what if the executing file is deleted during execution, so that there is no path to the file?
See the Unix FAQ for a little more detail, particularly questions 4.3 and 4.4.
mpez0
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 2 578
2
Why does everyone expect you to know the PID? Here's the human-friendly way:
pwdx `pgrep ###process_name###`
moodboom
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 709
The question states “as I can see with ps”, so it will probably display the PID – Scz – 2017-04-09T13:24:09.467
Ah ok true. I still find this to be a quicker one liner in many of my use cases. – moodboom – 2017-04-09T15:41:07.830
0
You could use
readlink /proc/$(pgrep -x -U $(id -ur) APP_NAME)/exe
or
find /proc/$(pgrep -x -U $(id -ur) APP_NAME)/exe -printf "%l\n"
to get the absolute path. PID is the process.
jarno
Posted 2010-02-01T13:48:15.000
Reputation: 173
1In my system (ubuntu 14.04) you do not have to be superuser to run the
lscommand. – jarno – 2016-03-05T08:42:30.9133@jarno
ls: cannot read symbolic link /proc/28783/exe: Permission denied-- it's not about running thelscommand, it's about accessing the process info of a process not belonging to you. On my box, about 97% of all processes listed in /proc are root processes, and the others are distributed over 11 different users. – Irfy – 2016-03-21T12:53:13.833