procfs: allow threads to rename siblings via /proc/pid/tasks/tid/comm
authorjohn stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:00:05 +0000 (18:00 -0800)
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:53:24 +0000 (08:53 -0800)
commit4614a696bd1c3a9af3a08f0e5874830a85b889d4
tree0b363d89ce612ab8557d49ab8b0f49b8520ffa66
parent7e1e0ef22c9ba9f797d7c4448feee722584bba5c
procfs: allow threads to rename siblings via /proc/pid/tasks/tid/comm

Setting a thread's comm to be something unique is a very useful ability
and is helpful for debugging complicated threaded applications.  However
currently the only way to set a thread name is for the thread to name
itself via the PR_SET_NAME prctl.

However, there may be situations where it would be advantageous for a
thread dispatcher to be naming the threads its managing, rather then
having the threads self-describe themselves.  This sort of behavior is
available on other systems via the pthread_setname_np() interface.

This patch exports a task's comm via proc/pid/comm and
proc/pid/task/tid/comm interfaces, and allows thread siblings to write to
these values.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: cleanups]
Signed-off-by: John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@infradead.org>
Cc: Mike Fulton <fultonm@ca.ibm.com>
Cc: Sean Foley <Sean_Foley@ca.ibm.com>
Cc: Darren Hart <dvhltc@us.ibm.com>
Cc: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
fs/exec.c
fs/proc/base.c