The /proc directory in Linux
What’s going on under the hood?
The /proc directory is a virtual filesystem that provides information about the system’s processes and kernel.
It’s called a virtual filesystem because it lives inside of the RAM and consumes no physical storage. If the system is shut down or restarted, the RAM is cleared and files of the /proc directory are generated from scratch.
In this article, I’m going to show you 5 of the most important files in this directory, which you can explore on your own system. This knowledge not only will make you a better Linux user but will also help you get the LPIC-1 certification.
1. /proc/interrupts
This file contains information about the interrupts from IO devices for each CPU thread.
You may ask, what are interrupts?
Here is my view on them by using the keyboard as an example:
In Linux, whenever you press a key on your keyboard, you send a signal directly to the CPU. When the CPU receives the signal, it stops what its currently doing, and processes the signal. You can think of this process as “interrupting” the CPU.
