The proc file system acts as an interface to internal data structures about running processes in the kernel. In Linux, it can also be used to obtain information about the kernel and to change certain kernel parameters at runtime (sysctl).

What is proc task?

The proc file system is a pseudo-file system which is used as an interface to kernel data structures. It is commonly mounted at /proc. Most of it is read-only, but some files allow kernel variables to be changed. The following outline gives a quick tour through the /proc hierarchy. /proc/[pid]

Is proc a file?

/proc is very special in that it is also a virtual filesystem. It’s sometimes referred to as a process information pseudo-file system. It doesn’t contain ‘real’ files but runtime system information (e.g. system memory, devices mounted, hardware configuration, etc).