What does the leading dash in process cmdline mean?

Question

I noticed a process taking full CPU on my linux server, of which the COMMAND column from top -c is -bash.

cat /proc/<pid>/cmdline shows -bash too.

What does the leading dash mean?

More info: I don't know if it's relevant, /proc/<pid>/exe -> /bin/bash (deleted)

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 02 '12 at 03:42

13

The dash is only relevant to bash (and other shells). It only means that the shell is a login shell.

answered Jan 02 '12 at 03:42

phemmer

I couldn't find this information in manpages for `w` , which uses the same convention while displaying bash login shell, - where is this convention documented in the first place? – Alexander Gonchiy Aug 16 '23 at 12:48
Nevermind, this has been thoroughly addressed in https://superuser.com/a/278865/304718 – Alexander Gonchiy Aug 16 '23 at 12:50

1 Answers1