[Bug 200201] Re: pidof Stops Searching if Match Found by device/inode Pair.

[Ralph Corderoy]

I've checked sysvinit_2.88dsf-13.10ubuntu4 from 11.10 and it looks to me
as if the code hasn't changed and the documentation hasn't improved so
the problem remains.  12.04 has the same package version.

** Changed in: sysvinit (Ubuntu)
       Status: Expired => Confirmed

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Title:
  pidof Stops Searching if Match Found by device/inode Pair.

Status in “sysvinit” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: sysvutils

  Ubuntu 7.10, /bin/pidof from 2.86.ds1-14.1ubuntu31 of sysvutils.

  pidof first tries to search by device/inode pair.  If that's succesful
  it doesn't bother searching by other methods.  This can result in it
  sometimes listing all PIDs for the named process, regardless of the
  user, and other times only listing those for $USER.  Compare:

       1  $ ps xauww | grep turnip
       2  peter    30165  0.0  0.0   5028   668 pts/0    S    14:54   0:00 ./turniphead 19999
       3  ralph    30581  0.0  0.0   5036   672 pts/1    S+   14:59   0:00 /tmp/turniphead 2999
       4  ralph    30611  0.0  0.0   5132   848 pts/0    S+   14:59   0:00 grep turnip
       5  $ pidof turniphead
       6  30581 30165
       7  $ pidof /tmp/turniphead
       8  30581
       9  $ ls -l /proc/{30581,30165}/exe
      10  ls: cannot read symbolic link /proc/30165/exe: Permission denied
      11  lrwxrwxrwx 1 peter peter 0 2008-03-09 14:59 /proc/30165/exe
      12  lrwxrwxrwx 1 ralph ralph 0 2008-03-09 14:59 /proc/30581/exe -> /tmp/turniphead

  #6 is the result of searching by name in /proc/$pid/stat.  However,
  pidof(1) suggests invoking pidof "with a full pathname to the program"
  is better but that only gives #8 because PID 30165 is owned by a
  different user so /proc/30165/exe is unreadable.

  Either pidof needs to search in multiple ways to come up with all
  answers, or the man page should detail the search strategy and pitfalls,
  or command line options should allow the "all" method of searching.
  Having #6 and #8 differ when #5 and #7 are both specifying the same
  executable is not obvious.

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