man 5 proc has obsolete info

[gpk]

Binary package hint: manpages

Doc for /proc/pid/stat wchan refers to /etc/psdatabase, which seems to be obsolete.

More modern information ( http://weichong78.blogspot.com/2006/10/wchan-waiting-channel.html ) says that the symbol name is readable from /proc/pid/wchan , which is indeed true (I checked it). So /etc/psdatabase does not exist on my Ubuntu system nor is it necessary. It looks like the information that used to be in /etc/psdatabase is now in /proc/kallsyms.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: manpages 3.23-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-29.58-generic 2.6.32.28+drm33.13
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-29-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Mar 18 10:32:43 2011
Dependencies:

InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: manpages

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Edward Donovan (edward.donovan)]

This looks accurate; on my Quantal alpha system, /etc/psdatabase is still mentioned in

  /usr/share/man/man5/proc.5.gz

and no such file exists on the system. (Happened to notice this report while looking for something else.) Thanks.

[Michael Kerrisk (mtk-manpages)]

I've applied the following patch upstream:

diff --git a/man5/proc.5 b/man5/proc.5
index efb402d..3acf867 100644
--- a/man5/proc.5
+++ b/man5/proc.5
@@ -1198,13 +1198,9 @@ instead.
 .TP
 \fIwchan\fP %lu
 (35) This is the "channel" in which the process is waiting.
-It is the
-address of a system call, and can be looked up in a namelist if you
-need a textual name.
-(If you have an up-to-date
-.IR /etc/psdatabase ,
-then
-try \fIps \-l\fP to see the WCHAN field in action.)
+It is the address of a location in the kernel where the process is sleeping.
+The corresponding symbolic name can be found in
+.IR /proc/[pid]/wchan .
 .TP
 \fInswap\fP %lu
 (36)
@@ -1479,6 +1475,10 @@ directory are not available if the main thread has already terminated
 (typically by calling
 .BR pthread_exit (3)).
 .TP
+.IR /proc/[pid]/wchan " (since Linux 2.6.0)"
+The symbolic name corresponding to the location
+in the kernel where the process is sleeping.
+.TP
 .I /proc/apm
 Advanced power management version and battery information when
 .B CONFIG_APM

[Stéphane Aulery (lkppo)]

Commited 2054f761a63fd921cbc221369c6839af88e969a4
Michael Kerrisk <email address hidden> 2014-01-24 10:13:48 (GMT)

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/commit/man5/proc.5?id=2054f761a63fd921cbc221369c6839af88e969a4

[Stéphane Aulery (lkppo)]

Fixed since manpages 3.57