UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

help! i need help with locating where a program is being run from. when i type top -i it only lists the name and minimal info, not the programs location from where it is being ran. i ask because i just used the same named executable, a.exe for all the processes and have lost the schedule detailing the process. any answers would be much appreciated. thanks

Depends on what you mean by "location". To see who started whom, you can either just follow the ppid -> pid -> ppid -> pid..... you get displayed via "ps -ef" for example or maybe you have such a tool like pstree which shows it in ascii graphics if you want (switch -a).

this is what happens when i type top -i,

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
25143 x 20 0 526m 198m 1048 R 100 5.0 21647:25 a.exe
25213 x 20 0 526m 201m 1048 R 100 5.1 21622:55 a.exe
25104 x 20 0 526m 199m 1048 R 98 5.0 21659:29 a.exe
32188 x 20 0 526m 201m 1048 R 98 5.1 54162:28 a.exe
29373 x 20 0 12808 1008 692 R 0 0.0 0:00.00 top

what i want is a command that will tell me the pid and where the specific program is running from, its location. thanks

I know no ps switch to get that info; so for example PID 25143:

Code:

cd /proc/25143
ls -la exe

Will show a link to the executable and it's full path. At least on my Debian box.

zaxxon, i am unbelievably grateful. muchos gracias !!!!