Doing a google search on wchan only brings up man pages for ps (which I have on my system) or for the wchan command (which I don't have, but don't think I need).
On Linux, the kernel gives me the english wchan value for a process: select, poll, wait4, unix_stream_data_wait, read_chan, rt_sigsuspend, nanosleep, etc.
Wait channels have to do with a proces waiting on something - usually for data to be available in a file or socket, sometimes waiting to be interupted to handle an event. All of the parameters you listed have to do with setting and reading information on what a given process is waiting for. The Linux kernel uses Wait Queues, other unices use Wait Channels. As I understand it, the terms are fairily interchangeable in user-space, although the kernel-level backends are radically different.
Strictly speaking: The address of an event on which a particular process is waiting. The abbreviation WCHAN appears in output of ps command with -l option.
Now, unless you're programing something complex, you shouldn't have to worry about this. If it was something you needed to worry about, you would know what it was.
What are you trying to do?
-Brad.
_______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug
