Solaris™ Internals: Core Kernel Components

8.6. Procfs — The Process File System

The process file system, procfs, is a pseudo file system. Pseudo file systems provide file-like abstractions and file I/O interfaces to something that is not a file in the traditional sense. Procfs abstracts the Solaris kernel's process architecture such that all processes running on the system appear in the root directory name space under the /proc directory; every process in the system exists as a file under /proc, with the process's PID serving as the filename. The PID filename under /proc is actually a directory, containing other files and subdirectories that, combined, make up the complete /proc directory space. The many kernel data structures that provide process data and control points appear as files ...