GETPROGNAME(3) BSD Library Functions Manual GETPROGNAME(3)

NAME
     ggeettpprrooggnnaammee, sseettpprrooggnnaammee - get or set the program name

LLIIBBRRAARRYY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     ##iinncclluuddee <>

     const char *
     ggeettpprrooggnnaammee(void);

     void
     sseettpprrooggnnaammee(const char *progname);

DESCRIPTION
     The ggeettpprrooggnnaammee() and sseettpprrooggnnaammee() functions manipulate the name of the
     current program.  They are used by error-reporting routines to produce
     consistent output.

     The ggeettpprrooggnnaammee() function returns the name of the program.  If the name
     has not been set yet, it will return NULL.

     The sseettpprrooggnnaammee() function sets the name of the program to be the last
     component of the progname argument.  Since a pointer to the given string
     is kept as the program name, it should not be modified for the rest of
     the program's lifetime.

     In FreeBSD, the name of the program is set by the start-up code that is
     run before mmaaiinn(); thus, running sseettpprrooggnnaammee() is not necessary.  Pro-
     grams that desire maximum portability should still call it; on another
     operating system, these functions may be implemented in a portability
     library.  Calling sseettpprrooggnnaammee() allows the aforementioned library to
     learn the program name without modifications to the start-up code.

SEE ALSO
     err(3)

HISTORY     These functions first appeared in NetBSD 1.6, and made their way into
     FreeBSD 4.4.

BSD                               May 1, 2001                              BSD