Component bdls_processutil [Package bdls]

Provide basic platform-independent utilities related to processes. More...

Namespaces
namespace	bdls

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Detailed Description

Outline

• Purpose
• Classes
• Description
  • getProcessName vs getPathToExecutable
  • Usage

Purpose:

Provide basic platform-independent utilities related to processes.

Classes:

bdls::ProcessUtil

portable utility methods related to processes

See also:

Description:

This component, bdls::ProcessUtil, defines a platform-independent interface for processes. Currently, it provides a utility to get the current process ID, a utility to get the name of the process, and a utility to get a filename through which the executable can be accessed.

getProcessName vs getPathToExecutable:

The getProcessName function is intended to yield a process name that will be meaningful to the programmer, recognizably related to the value of argv[0] passed to the application, and usually a valid path to the executable file. However, in some cases, especially when argv[0] was a relative path and the working directory has changed since main was called, this will not be a usable path for accessing the executable file, and getPathToExecutable should be used. Note that the return value of getPathToExecutable may be completely unrelated to the value of argv[0] passed to main, and the value returned by that function may vary when called multiple times in the same program. getPathToExecutable will not succeed unless it returns a valid path to the executable file.

Usage:

Get the current process ID:

  const int pid = bdls::ProcessUtil::getProcessId();

All calls to getProcessId will yield the same value:

  assert(bdls::ProcessUtil::getProcessId() == pid);

Get the current process name:

  bsl::string processName;
  int rc = bdls::ProcessUtil::getProcessName(&processName);
  if (0 != rc) {
      processName = "unknown";
  }

All calls to getProcessName will yield the same value. Note that if the call does not succeed, processNameB will not be modified.

  bsl::string processNameB("unknown");
  (void) bdls::ProcessUtil::getProcessName(&processNameB);

  assert(processNameB == processName);