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How can I find the PID for software where the name of the software is different from the executable?

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 893 / 3 Years ago, mon, june 28, 2021, 9:48:54

I run "Videos" software from the Dash in Ubuntu. After some minutes the software freezes.

I've tried searching for the PID of the software to kill it, but I can't find any result with these commands:

pgrep Videos



ps -eo cmd,pid,stime

I don't know the stime of the process.

I have to restart my computer and after login, I see the software is executed by totem command.

How can I find the PID for software where the name of the software is different from that of the executable file?

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4 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago rontablis · Accepted Answer

If you run a command from terminal then the command will always show up in the process table being a process.

Your case is different as you have run a Desktop entry (declared in a .desktop file), whose name and the command it executes can be totally different.

The .desktop files use an INI format to express metadata.

Here is the Desktop entry for htop:

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Name=Htop

Type=Application

Comment=Show System Processes

Terminal=true

Exec=htop

Icon=htop

Categories=ConsoleOnly;System;

GenericName=Process Viewer

In you case, the Name is Videos and the Exec line will indicate the actual command executed.

You should track down the .desktop file and check the entry to get the command actually being executed.

So lets find the .desktop file that contains Name=Videos:

% grep -RH '^Name=Videos$' ~/.local/share/applications /usr/share/applications

/usr/share/applications/totem.desktop:Name=Videos

Got it !!

It's declared in /usr/share/applications/totem.desktop.

Now let's check what command it actually runs:

% cat /usr/share/applications/totem.desktop

[Desktop Entry]

Name=Videos

Comment=Play movies

Keywords=Video;Movie;Film;Clip;Series;Player;DVD;TV;Disc;

Exec=totem %U

Icon=totem

Terminal=false

Type=Application

.

.

<truncated>

As you can see, the Exec key says totem %U. %U indicates a list of URIs.

Now, if you do:

pgrep totem

you would get the PID of the totem instance.