adjust process.executable.name semantic expectation

.chloggen/process_name.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# Use this changelog template to create an entry for release notes.
+#
+# If your change doesn't affect end users you should instead start
+# your pull request title with [chore] or use the "Skip Changelog" label.
+
+# One of 'breaking', 'deprecation', 'new_component', 'enhancement', 'bug_fix'
+change_type: enhancement
+
+# The name of the area of concern in the attributes-registry, (e.g. http, cloud, db)
+component: process
+
+# A brief description of the change. Surround your text with quotes ("") if it needs to start with a backtick (`).
+note: Added new attribute `process.name`, adjusted guidance for `process.executable.name`
+
+# Mandatory: One or more tracking issues related to the change. You can use the PR number here if no issue exists.
+# The values here must be integers.
+issues: [1736]
+
+# (Optional) One or more lines of additional information to render under the primary note.
+# These lines will be padded with 2 spaces and then inserted directly into the document.
+# Use pipe (|) for multiline entries.
+subtext: |
+  The new `process.name` attribute uses the original guidance for `process.executable.name`,
+  suggesting use of the `Name` field from `/proc/[pid]/status` on Linux. `process.executable.name`
+  guidance now suggests using the base name from the `/proc/[pid]/exe` symlink's target path.

model/process/registry.yaml

@@ -11,6 +11,14 @@ groups:
         brief: >
           Process identifier (PID).
         examples: [1234]
+      - id: process.name
+        type: string
+        stability: experimental
+        brief: >
+          The name of the process. On Linux based systems, can be set
+          to the `Name` in `proc/[pid]/status`. On Windows, can be set to the
+          base name of `GetProcessImageFileNameW`.
+        examples: ['otelcol']
       - id: process.parent_pid
         type: int
         stability: experimental
@@ -65,8 +73,8 @@ groups:
         stability: experimental
         brief: >
           The name of the process executable. On Linux based systems, can be set
-          to the `Name` in `proc/[pid]/status`. On Windows, can be set to the
-          base name of `GetProcessImageFileNameW`.
+          to the base name of the target of `/proc/[pid]/exe`. On Windows,
+          can be set to the base name of `GetProcessImageFileNameW`.
         examples: ['otelcol']
       - id: process.executable.path
         type: string