whereproc 0.1.0

Show the executable path for matching processes

whereproc

A small, cross-platform command-line tool to locate the executable path of a running process.

It gives you:

• PID lookup
• Process-name matching (substring / exact / regex)
• Command-line matching
• JSON output
• A quiet mode for scripting (--quiet → just print the process path)

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Why?

Because sometimes you just want a dead-simple way to answer: “What executable is actually backing this process?”

Useful for:

• debugging PATH issues
• finding the real location of app bundles / snap packages
• scripting around PID or exe discovery
• process verification and automation

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Installation

pipx (recommended)

pipx install whereproc

From source

git clone https://github.com/dorktoast/whereproc.git
cd whereproc
pipx install .

Usage

Basic substring match

whereproc firefox

PID    NAME     EXE
----------------------------------------------------------
75032  firefox  /snap/firefox/7355/usr/lib/firefox/firefox

Quiet Mode (print only path)

Useful for scripts!

whereproc --quiet firefox

/snap/firefox/7355/usr/lib/firefox/firefox

Exact Name match

whereproc --exact python3.12

Regex name match

whereproc --regex "python(3\.\d+)?"

Match against command line instead of process name

whereproc --cmd /snap/firefox

Regex on command line

whereproc --cmd --regex "snap.*firefox"

First-match output

When you don’t care about multiple processes.

whereproc --first firefox

Full command line

whereproc --cmdline firefox

JSON output

whereproc --json firefox

[
  {
    "pid": 75032,
    "name": "firefox",
    "exe": "/snap/firefox/7355/usr/lib/firefox/firefox",
    "cmdline": [
      "/snap/firefox/7355/usr/lib/firefox/firefox",
      "--some-arg"
    ]
  }
]

PID Search

If the query is an integer, it is treated as a PID.

whereproc 75032

Return Codes

• 0 → at least 1 match found
• 1 → no match

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.8
• psutil