xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/gen/getprogname.3 (revision 91dc43dd)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Christopher G. Demetriou
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32.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/getprogname.3,v 1.1.2.5 2001/12/14 18:33:51 ru Exp $
33.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/gen/getprogname.3,v 1.3 2004/03/11 12:28:50 hmp Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd May 1, 2001
36.Dt GETPROGNAME 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm getprogname ,
40.Nm setprogname
41.Nd get or set the program name
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In stdlib.h
46.Ft const char *
47.Fn getprogname "void"
48.Ft void
49.Fn setprogname "const char *progname"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn getprogname
53and
54.Fn setprogname
55functions manipulate the name of the current program.
56They are used by error-reporting routines to produce
57consistent output.
58.Pp
59The
60.Fn getprogname
61function returns the name of the program.
62If the name has not been set yet, it will return
63.Dv NULL .
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn setprogname
67function sets the name of the program to be the last component of the
68.Fa progname
69argument.
70Since a pointer to the given string is kept as the program name,
71it should not be modified for the rest of the program's lifetime.
72.Pp
73In
74.Dx ,
75the name of the program is set by the start-up code that is run before
76.Fn main ;
77thus,
78running
79.Fn setprogname
80is not necessary.
81Programs that desire maximum portability should still call it;
82on another operating system,
83these functions may be implemented in a portability library.
84Calling
85.Fn setprogname
86allows the aforementioned library to learn the program name without
87modifications to the start-up code.
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr err 3 ,
90.Xr setproctitle 3
91.Sh HISTORY
92These functions first appeared in
93.Nx 1.6 ,
94and made their way into
95.Fx 4.4 .
96