diff --git a/compat/linux/procinfo.c b/compat/linux/procinfo.c
index 0b47d44990..bc2f9382a1 100644
--- a/compat/linux/procinfo.c
+++ b/compat/linux/procinfo.c
@@ -4,26 +4,145 @@
 #include "strvec.h"
 #include "trace2.h"
 
-static void get_ancestry_names(struct strvec *names)
-{
-	/*
-	 * NEEDSWORK: We could gather the entire pstree into an array to match
-	 * functionality with compat/win32/trace2_win32_process_info.c.
-	 * To do so, we may want to examine /proc/<pid>/stat. For now, just
-	 * gather the immediate parent name which is readily accessible from
-	 * /proc/$(getppid())/comm.
-	 */
-	struct strbuf procfs_path = STRBUF_INIT;
-	struct strbuf name = STRBUF_INIT;
+/*
+ * We need more complex parsing in stat_parent_pid() and
+ * parse_proc_stat() below than a dumb fscanf(). That's because while
+ * the statcomm field is surrounded by parentheses, the process itself
+ * is free to insert any arbitrary byte sequence its its name. That
+ * can include newlines, spaces, closing parentheses etc.
+ *
+ * See do_task_stat() in fs/proc/array.c in linux.git, this is in
+ * contrast with the escaped version of the name found in
+ * /proc/%d/status.
+ *
+ * So instead of using fscanf() we'll read N bytes from it, look for
+ * the first "(", and then the last ")", anything in-between is our
+ * process name.
+ *
+ * How much N do we need? On Linux /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max is 2^15 by
+ * default, but it can be raised set to values of up to 2^22. So
+ * that's 7 digits for a PID. We have 2 PIDs in the first four fields
+ * we're interested in, so 2 * 7 = 14.
+ *
+ * We then have 3 spaces between those four values, and we'd like to
+ * get to the space between the 4th and the 5th (the "pgrp" field) to
+ * make sure we read the entire "ppid" field. So that brings us up to
+ * 14 + 3 + 1 = 18. Add the two parentheses around the "comm" value
+ * and it's 20. The "state" value itself is then one character (now at
+ * 21).
+ *
+ * Finally the maximum length of the "comm" name itself is 15
+ * characters, e.g. a setting of "123456789abcdefg" will be truncated
+ * to "123456789abcdef". See PR_SET_NAME in prctl(2). So all in all
+ * we'd need to read 21 + 15 = 36 bytes.
+ *
+ * Let's just read 2^6 (64) instead for good measure. If PID_MAX ever
+ * grows past 2^22 we'll be future-proof. We'll then anchor at the
+ * last ")" we find to locate the parent PID.
+ */
+#define STAT_PARENT_PID_READ_N 64
 
-	/* try to use procfs if it's present. */
-	strbuf_addf(&procfs_path, "/proc/%d/comm", getppid());
-	if (strbuf_read_file(&name, procfs_path.buf, 0) > 0) {
-		strbuf_trim_trailing_newline(&name);
-		strvec_push(names, name.buf);
+static int parse_proc_stat(struct strbuf *sb, struct strbuf *name,
+			    int *statppid)
+{
+	const char *comm_lhs = strchr(sb->buf, '(');
+	const char *comm_rhs = strrchr(sb->buf, ')');
+	const char *ppid_lhs, *ppid_rhs;
+	char *p;
+	pid_t ppid;
+
+	if (!comm_lhs || !comm_rhs)
+		goto bad_kernel;
+
+	/*
+	 * We're at the ")", that's followed by " X ", where X is a
+	 * single "state" character. So advance by 4 bytes.
+	 */
+	ppid_lhs = comm_rhs + 4;
+
+	/*
+	 * Read until the space between the "ppid" and "pgrp" fields
+	 * to make sure we're anchored after the untruncated "ppid"
+	 * field..
+	 */
+	ppid_rhs = strchr(ppid_lhs, ' ');
+	if (!ppid_rhs)
+		goto bad_kernel;
+
+	ppid = strtol(ppid_lhs, &p, 10);
+	if (ppid_rhs == p) {
+		const char *comm = comm_lhs + 1;
+		size_t commlen = comm_rhs - comm;
+
+		strbuf_add(name, comm, commlen);
+		*statppid = ppid;
+
+		return 0;
 	}
 
+bad_kernel:
+	/*
+	 * We were able to read our STAT_PARENT_PID_READ_N bytes from
+	 * /proc/%d/stat, but the content is bad. Broken kernel?
+	 * Should not happen, but handle it gracefully.
+	 */
+	return -1;
+}
+
+static int stat_parent_pid(pid_t pid, struct strbuf *name, int *statppid)
+{
+	struct strbuf procfs_path = STRBUF_INIT;
+	struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
+	FILE *fp;
+	int ret = -1;
+
+	/* try to use procfs if it's present. */
+	strbuf_addf(&procfs_path, "/proc/%d/stat", pid);
+	fp = fopen(procfs_path.buf, "r");
+	if (!fp)
+		goto cleanup;
+
+	/*
+	 * We could be more strict here and assert that we read at
+	 * least STAT_PARENT_PID_READ_N. My reading of procfs(5) is
+	 * that on any modern kernel (at least since 2.6.0 released in
+	 * 2003) even if all the mandatory numeric fields were zero'd
+	 * out we'd get at least 100 bytes, but let's just check that
+	 * we got anything at all and trust the parse_proc_stat()
+	 * function to handle its "Bad Kernel?" error checking.
+	 */
+	if (!strbuf_fread(&sb, STAT_PARENT_PID_READ_N, fp))
+		goto cleanup;
+	if (parse_proc_stat(&sb, name, statppid) < 0)
+		goto cleanup;
+
+	ret = 0;
+cleanup:
+	if (fp)
+		fclose(fp);
 	strbuf_release(&procfs_path);
+	strbuf_release(&sb);
+
+	return ret;
+}
+
+static void push_ancestry_name(struct strvec *names, pid_t pid)
+{
+	struct strbuf name = STRBUF_INIT;
+	int ppid;
+
+	if (stat_parent_pid(pid, &name, &ppid) < 0)
+		goto cleanup;
+
+	strvec_push(names, name.buf);
+
+	/*
+	 * Both errors and reaching the end of the process chain are
+	 * reported as fields of 0 by proc(5)
+	 */
+	if (ppid)
+		push_ancestry_name(names, ppid);
+cleanup:
 	strbuf_release(&name);
 
 	return;
@@ -45,11 +164,7 @@ void trace2_collect_process_info(enum trace2_process_info_reason reason)
 		 */
 		break;
 	case TRACE2_PROCESS_INFO_STARTUP:
-		/*
-		 * NEEDSWORK: we could do the entire ptree in an array instead,
-		 * see compat/win32/trace2_win32_process_info.c.
-		 */
-		get_ancestry_names(&names);
+		push_ancestry_name(&names, getppid());
 
 		if (names.nr)
 			trace2_cmd_ancestry(names.v);