topic Re: Get full path of executable of running process... in Operating System - HP-UX

Get full path of executable of running process...

rakeshcs123 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:39:42 GMT

Hi All,
I want to get the full path of the running process (executable) without having root permission using C++ code. Can someone suggest a way to achieve this.

on Linux platforms i can do it by using following way.

char exepath[1024] = {0};
char procid[1024] = {0};
char exelink[1024] = {0};

sprintf(procid, "%u", getpid());

strcpy(exelink, "/proc/");
strcat(exelink, procid);
strcat(exelink, "/exe");

readlink(exelink, exepath, sizeof(exepath));

Here exepath gives us the full path of the executable.

Similarly for windows we do it using
GetModuleFileName(NULL, exepath, sizeof(exepath)); /* get fullpath of the service */

Please help me how to do it on HP-UX since there is no /proc directory in HP-UX.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Venkatesh BL — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:56:15 GMT

I am not sure, but, see if 'pstat_getcommandline()' is what you are looking for. Check out its man page for details.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

rakeshcs123 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:12:12 GMT

I see that there is a function pstat_getpathname() which returns the full pathname of the process but is limited to UID=0 , but my requirement is a non root user should be able to get the full path name of the executable from the process.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Dennis Handly — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:28:56 GMT

If argv[0] is an absolute path, you are done. If relative, you use getcwd(3) and concatenate. Otherwise you get getenv("PATH") and then stat(2) argv[0] concatenated to it. And find the first that is executable and is a file.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

rakeshcs123 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:29:22 GMT

Hi All, ACtually i don have option to append argv[0] to getcwd() output, because my code has to detect the excecutable path (which is running). my code to find the full executable path is in some shared library loaded by executable, so i dont really have argv[0] option to use. Only thing that i have is the process id, under which my shared library is loaded. so if someone can suggest a way to use process id and then from that find the executalbe full path, it would be great. As you can see in my initial description i have used way to find full path of executable using process id or directly with some system function (which also uses current process to return result). I see there is one function pstat_getpathname() available on hpux but is restricted to root or equivalent user, but my requirement is any user should be able to get the path (obviously user who is running the process).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

James R. Ferguson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:41:38 GMT

Hi:

Stating the HP-UX *release* on which you are running would be useful. The 'pstat()' module has more functionality in newer releases than in older ones.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Peter Nikitka — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:14:33 GMT

Hi,

as a try I would set the s-bit for root on the executable, which uses the function pstat_getpathname() .

It depends on other stuff done by this program, if that is a security risk.

mfG Peter

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Dennis Handly — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:20:04 GMT

>I don't really have argv[0] option to use.

Sure you do, you just have to work smarter. :-)
Also, if you were using a real shell the variable "_" would have the relative or absolute path of the executable. sh may not have the "./".

>directly with some system function

No such function for ordinary users.

This program only shows you how to get argv:
#include
#include
#include /* _environ, __argv (ELF) */

#if defined(__LP64__) || defined(__ia64)
#define ARGVS __argv
#else
extern char **__argv_value;
#define ARGVS __argv_value
#endif

int main() {
int i;
const char *path = getenv("PATH");
printf("PATH=%s\n", path);
for (i = 0; ARGVS[i]; ++i) {
printf("argv[%03d]: %s\n", i, ARGVS[i]);
}
for (i = 0; _environ[i]; ++i) {
printf("env[%03d]: %s\n", i, _environ[i]);
}
return 0;
}

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

rakeshcs123 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:17:14 GMT

It seems either i should use pstat_getpathname() function or use getcwd()/argv[0].

Signature of pstat_getpathname
int pstat_getpathname(
char *buf,
size_t elemcount,
struct pst_fid *fid
);

I see the man page of pstat_getpathname() which states we can use pstat_getfile2() or pstat_getproc() to obtain fid. but when i see signature of pstat_getproc then it takes struct pst_status as an argument. how to get the fid from struct pst_status variable.

from pstat_getfile2 things works, but i need to open the file to get this details (which i dont have).

Thanks in advance...

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Dennis Handly — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:37:45 GMT

>but I need to open the file to get this details

You don't know the name and it isn't open. So you are left with getcwd()/argv[0].

I suppose you could use shl_get(3) or dlget(3) and then use advanced AI technology to figure out which is the executable.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Dennis Handly — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:49:33 GMT

>I suppose you could use shl_get(3) or dlget(3)

Ok, shl_get(3) says use index of -2, unfortunately that only gives the relative path if invoked with one.

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

yrpark — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:00:54 GMT

pst_status pst;
pst.pst_pid = -1;
pstat_getproc (&pst, sizeof (pst_status), 0, getpid());

char pathbuffer[1024];
pstat_getpathname(pathbuffer,1024,&pst.pst_fid_text);
printf("Executable full path:%s\n",pathbuffer);

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

Dennis Handly — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:58:04 GMT

>yrpark: pstat_getpathname(pathbuffer,1024,&pst.pst_fid_text);

Yes, this solution was alluded to in rakeshcs123's other thread:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1280356

Re: Get full path of executable of running process...

rakeshcs123 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:42:59 GMT

i solved the problem with some other technique since i could not got the proper solution for this