/proc Filesystem

/proc Filesystem

The /proc filesystem, also known as the debug filesystem, provides an interface to running IRIX processes for use by monitoring programs, such as ps and top, and debuggers, such as dbx. The debug filesystem is usually mounted on /proc with a link to /debug. To reduce confusion, /proc is not displayed when you list free space with the df command.

The "files" of the debug filesystem are of the form /proc/nnnnn and /proc/pinfo/nnnnn, where nnnnn is a decimal number corresponding to a process ID. These files do not consume disk space; they are merely handles for debugging processes. /proc files cannot be removed.

See the proc(4) reference page for more information on the debug filesystem.