GETPROGNAME(3)

NAME
getprogname, setprogname - get/set the name of the current program

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
const char *
getprogname(void);
void
setprogname(const char *name);

DESCRIPTION
These utility functions get and set the current program's name as used by various error-reporting functions.

getprogname() returns the name of the current program. This function is typically useful when generating error messages or other diagnostic output. If the program name has not been set, getprogname() will return NULL.

setprogname() sets the name of the current program to be the last pathname component of the name argument. It should be invoked at the start of the program, using the argv[0] passed into the program's main() function. A pointer into the string pointed to by the name argument is kept as the program name. Therefore, the string pointed to by name should not be modified during the rest of the program's operation.

A program's name can only be set once, and in NetBSD that is actually done by program start-up code that is run before main() is called. Therefore, in NetBSD, calling setprogname() from main() has no effect. However, it does serve to increase the portability of the program: on other operating systems, getprogname() and setprogname() may be implemented by a portability library, and a call to setprogname() allows that library to know the program name without modifications to that system's program start-up code.

SEE ALSO
err(3), setproctitle(3)

HISTORY
The getprogname and setprogname function calls appeared in NetBSD 1.6.