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/proc/ folder has empty files.

Dear all,

I have to do an assignment using the files in the /proc/ directory. But the thing is, the files - /proc/cpuinfo, process ID file - are all empty. I am running Debian 'etch'. I have checked the folder on other OSs, and have found that they are not empty. I have opened these files as SuperUser too, but the result is the same. I am confused. Why do not the files show any data, when they are supposed to?

Even the process ID folders have blank files.

Need help on this.

Hi,

How did you check the content of, for instance, /proc/cpuinfo?

Looking at the listing, it looks empty:

Code:

$ ls -l /proc/cpuinfo

-r--r--r--  1 root root 0 Mar  7 12:41 /proc/cpuinfo

If you cat the file, there is content:

Code:

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor      : 0

vendor_id      : GenuineIntel

cpu family      : 15

model          : 2

model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz

stepping        : 9

cpu MHz        : 2793.527

cache size      : 512 KB

physical id    : 0

.

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The /proc directory can be seen as a realtime gateway/interface between the kernel and the user. See man proc for details about this pseudo filesystem.

Hope this helps.

Well, obviously we're not going to do your assignment for you ;) But I suggest to study pipes and redirecting for/in scripts etc :)

Hi,

Thanks all. It did help.