#1136563 procdump uses pidof but does not depend on procps

#1136563#5
Date:
2026-05-13 23:31:13 UTC
From:
To:
Dear maintainer(s) of procdump,

it appears that procdump uses `pidof` in its testsuite, or that
at least one of its binary packages uses `pidof` at runtime.
Historically, `pidof` was provided by the Essential package
`sysvinit-tools`, making an explicit dependency unnecessary. However
`pidof` will soon be moved to `procps` and will no longer be part of
the Essential set.

Please add an explicit dependency on `procps`:

* via the `Depends:` field of all binary packages of procdump
  that use `pidof` at runtime;
* via the `Build-Depends:` field of procdump, if `pidof` is
  used in tests run at build-time;
* via the `Depends:` field of `debian/control/tests`, if `pidof` is
  used in autopkgtests.

To prevent any disruption for users of procdump, please add
this dependency now, before `pidof` is moved from `sysvinit-utils` to
`procps`. Alternatively, you could remove all uses of `pidof`.

It is believed that procdump uses `pidof` due to the following
code snippets:

```
path: procdump_2.2-4/src/Monitor.c
    if(self->bDumpOnException)
    {
        // exception_trigger;<fullpathtodumplocation>;<pidofprocdump>;<exception>:<numdumps>;<exception>:<numdumps>,...
        exceptionFilter = GetEncodedExceptionFilter(self->ExceptionFilter, self->NumberOfDumpsToCollect);
        if(exceptionFilter == NULL)


path: procdump_2.2-4/src/Monitor.c
    else if(self->DumpGCGeneration != -1 && self->MemoryThreshold == NULL)
    {
        // GC Generation (-gcgen);<fullpathtodumplocation>;<pidofprocdump>;GCGeneration
        clientData = GetClientDataHelper(GCGeneration, fullDumpPath, "%d", self->DumpGCGeneration);
        if(clientData == NULL)


path: procdump_2.2-4/src/Monitor.c
    else if (self->bMonitoringGCMemory)
    {
        // GC Memory trigger (-gcm);<fullpathtodumplocation>;<pidofprocdump>;Generation:Threshold1;Threshold2,...
        thresholds = GetThresholds(self);
        if(thresholds == NULL)


path: procdump_2.2-4/tests/integration/runProcDumpAndValidate.sh
		echo [`date +"%T.%3N"`] Done waiting for stress-ng to start
		childrenpid=$(pidof -o $pid $(which stress-ng))
			echo "ChildrenPID: $childrenpid"
```

Feel free to close this issue if this is a false positive (for example
if this code is in an unreachable code path).

Regards,