Exploring the /proc filesystem with Python and shell commands
/proc Talk
© Lead Image © Ioannis Kounadeas, Fotolia.com
The Linux /proc virtual filesystem offers a window into a running system – look inside for information on processes and kernel activity.
The proc filesystem [1] (procfs for short), is a Linux pseudo-filesystem that provides an interface to the operating system's kernel data structures. Procfs leverages the well-known concept of "in Unix, everything is a file" [2] to provide the same uniform interface of Unix file I/O (e.g., open, read, write, close, etc.) for getting kernel- and OS-related information. This uniformity makes it easier for the Linux programmer or system administrator to learn about the kernel, with fewer interfaces to learn.
Procfs is usually mounted at /proc. Many kinds of information about the operating system (OS) and processes running in it are exposed via pseudo-files in procfs. By reading data from /proc files, you can learn a lot of useful information about the system.
This article shows some ways of getting information from procfs using custom Python programs and Linux commands.
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