Q. Few commands under FreeBSD depends upon procfs (process file system). FreeBSD does not mount it by default. How do I mount /proc (procfs) from a shell prompt?
A. Yes few commands will not work, as procfs has to be mounted. The process file system, or procfs, implements a view of the system process table inside the file system. It is normally mounted on /proc, and is required for the complete operation of programs such as strace, ps and w.
Task: Mount procfs from a shell prompt
To mount a procfs file system on /proc, login as the root user and enter:
# mount -t procfs proc /proc
# mount
Sample output:
/dev/ad4s1a on / (ufs, local)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
/dev/ad4s1d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates)
/dev/ad4s1g on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates)
/dev/ad4s1e on /var (ufs, local, soft-updates)
/dev/ad6s1 on /disk1 (ufs, local, soft-updates)
/dev/ad4s1f on /webroot (ufs, local, soft-updates)
devfs on /usr/home/j/mroot/dev (devfs, local)
/usr/home/j/mroot on /usr/home/j/www (nullfs, local, read-only)
/usr/home/js/www on /usr/home/j/www/s (nullfs, local)
procfs on /proc (procfs, local)Open /etc/fstab - file system table, enter:
# vi /etc/fstab
Append following line so that procfs get mounted automatically at boot time:
proc /proc procfs rw 0 0
Save and close the file.
You should follow me on twitter here or grab rss feed to keep track of new changes.
Featured Articles:
- 30 Handy Bash Shell Aliases For Linux / Unix / Mac OS X
- Top 30 Nmap Command Examples For Sys/Network Admins
- 25 PHP Security Best Practices For Sys Admins
- 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
- 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips
- Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins
- Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices
- Top 20 Nginx WebServer Best Security Practices
- 20 Examples: Make Sure Unix / Linux Configuration Files Are Free From Syntax Errors
- 15 Greatest Open Source Terminal Applications Of 2012

- My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes
- Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software
- Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users
- The Novice Guide To Buying A Linux Laptop












{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this :)
Fixed my issue where I couldn’t shutdown Gnome
Thanks, I had this syslog error on PC-BSD 9.0 and this fixed it.
console-kit-daemon[2644]: WARNING: kvm_getenvv failed: cannot open /proc/2805/mem
Regads,
DA+