News Group Posts

width of command in ps

Apparently the suggestion below for increasing ps argument width was wishful thinking, see Width of ps arguments

You aren't going to be able to reach this goal. All parts of the OSR5 kernel are built with the original version of the that you see in your /usr/include hierarchy. You do not have sources to rebuild the whole kernel. Relinking the kernel uses pre-compiled objects.

I happen to know that if you _did_ have kernel sources and made the proposed change, (1) the resulting kernel wouldn't boot; (2) if it did, `ps` would no longer be able to make any sense at all out of it (it wouldn't work at all); (3) all sorts of other parts of the system would also fail. The structure you're trying to modify is referenced by kernel- and user-level code all over the system, much of it precompiled and insensitive to changes in the headers on your filesystem.

Changing that field would require moving it into a different structure so that the structure offsets of `struct user' remained unchanged. Users of that field (such as `ps`) would then have to be modified to look for it in the new location.

>Bela<

Newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.misc
Subject: Re: simple Question about PS and command width
References: <8is43j$cv7$1@perki.connect.com.au> 
From: spcecdt@deeptht.armory.com. (John DuBois)
Message-ID: <e5B45.17913$9W1.338603@news-west.usenetserver.com> 
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 03:47:22 GMT

In article <8is43j$cv7$1@perki.connect.com.au>,
Stuart J. Browne <stuart@promed.com.au> wrote:
>Is it possible to get more than 80 characters for the COMMAND name when
>doing a 'ps -f'.

No.  From /usr/include/sys/user.h:

#define PSARGSZ         80      /* Space in u-block for exec arguments */
                                /* Used by ps command */


        John
-- 
John DuBois  spcecdt@armory.com.  KC6QKZ/AE  http://www.armory.com./~spcecdt/

Comments?

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.