/proc/<pid>/cmdline

Steve VanDevender (stevev@efn.org)
Wed, 10 Jul 1996 15:25:06 -0700

A. M. writes:
> A brief observation that on my system, cat of /proc/<pid>/cmdline gives
> the cmdline minus spaces between the arguments. Is this correct,
> is my system in need of an upgrade somewhere, or is it an error?
>
> Alex

There is something between the arguments:

$ cat /proc/self/cmdline | od -c
0000000 c a t \0 / p r o c / s e l f / c
0000020 m d l i n e
0000026

You would generally have to use a tool like od to see the nulls ('\0')
between the arguments.