.\" Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, Daniel Quinlan .\" Copyright (C) 2002-2008, 2017, Michael Kerrisk .\" Copyright (C) 2023, Alejandro Colomar .\" .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later .\" .TH proc_pid_exe 5 2023-08-15 "Linux man-pages 6.7" .SH NAME /proc/pid/exe \- symbolic link to program pathname .SH DESCRIPTION .TP .IR /proc/ pid /exe Under Linux 2.2 and later, this file is a symbolic link containing the actual pathname of the executed command. This symbolic link can be dereferenced normally; attempting to open it will open the executable. You can even type .IR /proc/ pid /exe to run another copy of the same executable that is being run by process .IR pid . If the pathname has been unlinked, the symbolic link will contain the string \[aq]\ (deleted)\[aq] appended to the original pathname. .\" The following was still true as at kernel 2.6.13 In a multithreaded process, the contents of this symbolic link are not available if the main thread has already terminated (typically by calling .BR pthread_exit (3)). .IP Permission to dereference or read .RB ( readlink (2)) this symbolic link is governed by a ptrace access mode .B PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS check; see .BR ptrace (2). .IP Under Linux 2.0 and earlier, .IR /proc/ pid /exe is a pointer to the binary which was executed, and appears as a symbolic link. A .BR readlink (2) call on this file under Linux 2.0 returns a string in the format: .IP .in +4n .EX [device]:inode .EE .in .IP For example, [0301]:1502 would be inode 1502 on device major 03 (IDE, MFM, etc. drives) minor 01 (first partition on the first drive). .IP .BR find (1) with the .I \-inum option can be used to locate the file. .SH SEE ALSO .BR proc (5)