I am currently working on a c/c++ program that uses several child proccess (forks). The issue is I would like to see these listed by ps by the name, not by the parent name.

It was suggested that I overwrite argv[0] on the child. While this looks like it can work (tested a little) I just have a couple questions before I feel that this is safe coding.

1. Storage. How is argv stored (structure). I suspect there is a char* and a int for length. When I tested the code it looked like 'ps' still dumped the full length of the origional argv[0].

2. Is this a 'good thing' to do ? If there are any violations by messing with this please let me know, and why if you can.

Many Thanks.

example ps:

UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
mrx 28207 28186 0 18:44 pts/0 00:00:00 xterm
mrx 28226 28209 0 18:44 pts/1 00:00:00 ./bridgekeeper
mrx 28228 28226 0 18:44 pts/1 00:00:00 bk_thread er
mrx 28229 28186 0 18:44 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -af

(please note the extra "er" at end of test

Argv is a char** not char*

I understand argv itself but ultimately there is some underlying storage area for the actual data. If I try to redirect the pointer to where I want I am not sure of the repercussions.

Try this
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...01.1/2281.html

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] ) {
}

argv is an "array" of "pointers to int type".

You can use argv[row][column].

Thanks to all !.

Glen

argv is an array of pointers to char type