netbsd man page for setproctitle

SETPROCTITLE(3) 					   BSD Library Functions Manual 					   SETPROCTITLE(3)

NAME
     setproctitle -- set process title

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdlib.h>

     void
     setproctitle(const char *fmt, ...);

DESCRIPTION
     The setproctitle() function sets the invoking process's title.  The process title is set to the last component of the program name, followed
     by a colon and the formatted string specified by fmt.  If fmt is NULL, the colon and formatted string are omitted.  The length of a process
     title is limited to 2048 bytes.

EXAMPLES
     Set the process title to the program name, with no further information:

	   setproctitle(NULL);

     Set the process title to the program name, an informational string, and the process id:

	   setproctitle("foo! (%d)", getpid());

SEE ALSO
     ps(1), w(1), getprogname(3), printf(3)

HISTORY
     The setproctitle() function first appeared in NetBSD 1.0.

CAVEATS
     It is important never to pass a string with user-supplied data as a format without using '%s'.  An attacker can put format specifiers in the
     string to mangle your stack, leading to a possible security hole.	This holds true even if you have built the string ``by hand'' using a
     function like snprintf(), as the resulting string may still contain user-supplied conversion specifiers for later interpolation by
     setproctitle().

     Always be sure to use the proper secure idiom:

	   setproctitle("%s", string);

BSD
								  April 13, 1994							       BSD