[cabhinaba3]

darwin: respect the update_process_names setting

Fixes #915.

On Darwin, "Update process names on every refresh" had no effect. DarwinProcess_setFromKInfoProc() read the command line once.

With the necessary setting on, both are now re-read for processes htop already knows about, as Linux does (LinuxProcessTable_readCmdlineFile() also refreshes the binary). Zombies are skipped, as on Linux: their arguments can no longer be read, and the fallback would shrink the full command line to p_comm.

With the setting off, nothing changes.

Before

htop stays at count=0 while ps shows the process renaming itself every second.

After

htop follows the process, matching ps at the same second.

Exec and zombie

A process that execs /bin/sleep under the same PID is shown as sleep 60. A zombie keeps its full command line while ps shows <defunct>.

How to test

A process that rewrites its own argv[1] once a second:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
   size_t len = strlen(argv[1]);
   for (int i = 0; ; i++) {
      memset(argv[1], ' ', len);
      snprintf(argv[1], len + 1, "count=%d", i);
      sleep(1);
   }
}

clang renamer.c -o renamer
./renamer XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX &
./htop -p $(pgrep -n renamer)

Enable the option under F2, Display options:

The Command column should now follow ps -o command= -p <pid>.

Tested

On macOS 26.6.2 (Apple M1)

Note:

With the setting on, the extra reads cost about 9 ms of CPU per refresh with ~530 processes.

Assisted-by: Claude Opus 5.5

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[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

For existing Darwin processes, DarwinProcess_setFromKInfoProc now refreshes the executable path and command line when updateProcessNames is enabled and the process is not a zombie. The existing CWD-field check remains limited to initial process setup.

Assessment against linked issues:

Objective	Addressed	Explanation
Process names reflect changes on OSX [#915]	✅

Suggested reviewers: natoscott

Priority: Normal

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: Low · up to f0e10

Enabled refreshes may briefly show degraded process names after a read failure; preserve the previous command line.

- [ ] Autofix · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

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_{Names refresh as processes run
Executable paths update too
Command lines follow each change
Zombie processes stay untouched
Darwin keeps the latest view}

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

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• darwin/DarwinProcess.c

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[cabhinaba3]

@BenBE, can you have a look when you have some time? Thanks