Mounting /proc

As mentioned earlier, /proc is a filesystem. And, like all filesystems, you need to mount it. In theory, you could mount it anywhere, but the standard is to mount it in /proc.

Most systems have /proc mounted by default in /etc/fstab, but just in case, make sure that it's mounted by doing:

$ mount

Note: Throughout this guide, $ indicates a command to be run from a normal user's shell, and # indicates something that must be run from a root shell.

If the output contains a line such as:

proc on /proc type proc (rw)

then you are fine. If not, follow the instructions below.

First, make sure that you have a directory called /proc:

# if ! test -f /proc

then

mkdir /proc

fi

Then, add a line to the file /etc/fstab such as this:

proc		/proc	proc		defaults		0 0

Now, mount it:

# mount proc

You're now ready to play around with /proc.