.\" Copyright (C) 2006 Michael Kerrisk .\" .\" %%%LICENSE_START(PERMISSIVE_MISC) .\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining .\" a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the .\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including .\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, .\" distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to .\" permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to .\" the following conditions: .\" .\" The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be .\" included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, .\" EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY .\" CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, .\" TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE .\" SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. .\" %%%LICENSE_END .\" .TH program_invocation_name 3 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages 6.9.1" .SH NAME program_invocation_name, program_invocation_short_name \- \ obtain name used to invoke calling program .SH LIBRARY Standard C library .RI ( libc ", " \-lc ) .SH SYNOPSIS .nf .BR "#define _GNU_SOURCE" " /* See feature_test_macros(7) */" .B #include .P .BI "extern char *" program_invocation_name ; .BI "extern char *" program_invocation_short_name ; .fi .SH DESCRIPTION .I program_invocation_name contains the name that was used to invoke the calling program. This is the same as the value of .I argv[0] in .IR main (), with the difference that the scope of .I program_invocation_name is global. .P .I program_invocation_short_name contains the basename component of name that was used to invoke the calling program. That is, it is the same value as .IR program_invocation_name , with all text up to and including the final slash (/), if any, removed. .P These variables are automatically initialized by the glibc run-time startup code. .SH VERSIONS The Linux-specific .IR /proc/ pid /cmdline file provides access to similar information. .SH STANDARDS GNU. .SH SEE ALSO .BR proc (5)