---
name: "proc_pid_comm"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "man-pages"
version: "6.19-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/proc_pid_comm"
---

# proc\_pid\_comm(5)

command name

## NAME

/proc/pid/comm - command name

## DESCRIPTION

- */proc/*pid*/comm* (since Linux 2.6.33)

  This file exposes the process's *comm* value—that is, the command name associated with the process. Different threads in the same process may have different *comm* values, accessible via */proc/*pid*/task/*tid*/comm*. A thread may modify its *comm* value, or that of any of other thread in the same thread group (see the discussion of **CLONE\_THREAD** in [**clone**(2)](/clone/2.md)), by writing to the file */proc/self/task/*tid*/comm*. Strings longer than **TASK\_COMM\_LEN** (16) characters (including the terminating null byte) are silently truncated.

-

  This file provides a superset of the [**prctl**(2)](/prctl/2.md) **PR\_SET\_NAME** and **PR\_GET\_NAME** operations, and is employed by [**pthread\_setname\_np**(3)](/pthread_setname_np/3.md) when used to rename threads other than the caller. The value in this file is used for the *%e* specifier in */proc/sys/kernel/core\_pattern*; see [**core**(5)](/core/5.md).

## SEE ALSO

[**proc**(5)](/proc/5.md)