problems with ps(1)

[John R. Levine]

In article <269 at zeek.UUCP> rick at zeek.UUCP (Rick Wilhelm) writes:
>ps: unlink() failed
>ps: /etc/ps_data, Permission denied
>ps: Please notify your System Administrator

The first time ps runs after a reboot, it looks up all of the kernel
symbols that it needs and saves them in /etc/ps_data.  (It probably
does the same thing if /unix is newer than ps_data.)  Thereafter it
looks in the file rather than looking them up again.  For this hack to
work, ps needs to be able to read /unix and /dev/kmem, and to be able
to write in /etc.  Here are the permissions on my system that make it
possible:

-r-xr-sr-x   1 root     sys        21472 May  8  1989 /bin/ps
cr--r-----   1 sys      sys        2,  1 May  8  1989 /dev/kmem
drwxrwxr-x  19 root     sys         3312 Nov 10 09:26 /etc

Usually the problem is that /etc isn't 775 or else /etc and /bin/ps
aren't in the same group.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl at esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl
Massachusetts has over 100,000 unlicensed drivers.  -The Globe