Re: linux-proc readlink patch

[Michael Elizabeth Chastain <mec@shout.net>]

Daniel Jacobowitz writes:
> The link was 'magic' - its text was something along the lines of a
> device and inode number, I believe.  It's not worth worrying about
> unless someone actually reports it broken, I think.

I'm getting a nostalgia rush.

My recollection is the same as Daniel's.  /proc/$pid/exe has been a
symlink for a long time, since 1996 or so.  And it's been usable all
that time if you just open up the file and use it.

The original name was indeed "device:inode" which was unusable.  I don't
know when the transitition to a real file name took place.  The last
two stable versions of the kernel (2.2 and 2.4) have real file names
instead of "device:inode" and I feel comfortable relying on a feature
that is in the past two major versions.

Michael C