ps — report a snapshot of the current processes
ps
[options
]
ps displays information about a selection of the active processes. If you want a repetitive update of the selection and the displayed information, use top(1) instead.
This version of ps accepts several kinds of options:
UNIX options, which may be grouped and must be preceeded by a dash.
BSD options, which may be grouped and must not be used with a dash.
GNU long options, which are preceeded by two dashes.
Options of different types may be freely mixed, but conflicts can appear. There are some synonomous options, which are functionally identical, due to the many standards and ps implementations that this ps is compatible with.
Note that
ps -a
u
x
is distinct from
ps a
u
x
.
The POSIX and UNIX standards require that
ps -a
u
x
print all processes owned by a user named x
, as
well as printing all processes that would be selected by -a
.
If the user named x
does not exist,
this ps may interpret the command as
ps a
u
x
instead and print a warning. This behavior is intended to aid in transitioning
old scripts and habits. It is fragile, subject to change, and thus should not
be relied upon.
By default, ps selects all processes with the same
effective user ID (EUID
) as the curent user and associated
with the same terminal as the invoker. It displays the process ID
(PID
), the terminal associated with the process
(TTY
), the cumulated CPU time in [dd-]hh:mm:ss format
(TIME
), and the executable name (CMD
). Output is
unsorted by default.
The use of BSD-style options will add process state (STAT
) to
the default display and show the command args (COMMAND
) instead
of the executable name.
You can override this with the PS_FORMAT
environment variable.
The use of BSD-style options will also change the process selection to
include processes on other terminals (TTY
) that are owned by you;
alternately, this may be described as setting the selection to be the set of
all processes filtered to exclude processes owned by other users or not on a
terminal. These effects are not considered when options are described as being
"identical" below, so -M
will be considered identical to
Z
and so on.
Except as described below, process selection options are additive. The default selection is discarded, and then the selected processes are added to the set of processes to be displayed. A process will thus be shown if it meets any of the given selection criteria.
To see every process on the system using standard syntax:
ps-e
ps-e
f
ps-e
F
ps-e
l
y
To see every process on the system using BSD syntax:
psa
x
psa
x
u
To print a process tree:
ps-e
j
H
psa
x
j
f
To get info about threads:
ps-e
L
f
psa
x
m
s
To get security info:
ps-e
o
euser
,ruser
,suser
,fuser
,f
,comm
,label
psa
x
Z
ps-e
M
To see every process running as root (real & effective ID) in user format:
ps-U
root
-u
root
u
To see every process with a user-defined format:
ps-e
o
pid
,tid
,class
,rtprio
,ni
,pri
,psr
,pcpu
,stat
,wchan:
14
,comm
psa
x
o
stat
,euid
,ruid
,tty
,tpgid
,sess
,pgrp
,ppid
,pid
,pcpu
,comm
ps-e
o
spid
,tt
,user
,fname
,tmout
,f
,wchan
Print only the process IDs of syslogd:
ps-C
syslogd
-o
pid=
Print only the name of PID 42:
ps-p
42
-o
comm=
-A
Select all processes. Identical
to -e
.
-N
Select all processes except those that fulfill
the specified conditions. (negates the selection) Identical
to --deselect
.
T
Select all processes associated with this
terminal. Identical to the t
option without
any argument.
-a
Select all processes except session leaders (see getsid(2)) and processes not associated with a terminal.
a
Lift the BSD-style "only yourself" restriction,
which is imposed upon the set of all processes when some
BSD-style (without "-") options are used or when
the ps personality setting is BSD-like.
The set of processes selected in this manner is in addition
to the set of processes selected by other means.
An alternate description is that this option
causes ps to list all processes with a
terminal (tty), or to list all processes when used together
with the x
option.
-d
Select all processes except session leaders.
-e
Select all processes. Identical
to -A
.
g
Really all, even session leaders. This flag is
obsolete and may be discontinued in a future release. It is
normally implied by the a
flag, and is only
useful when operating in the sunos4 personality.
r
Restrict the selection to only running processes.
x
Lift the BSD-style "must have a tty" restriction,
which is imposed upon the set of all processes when some
BSD-style (without "-") options are used or when
the ps personality
setting is BSD-like. The set of processes selected in this
manner is in addition to the set of processes selected by
other means. An alternate description is that this option
causes ps to list all processes owned by
you (same EUID as ps), or to list all
processes when used together with
the a
option.
--deselect
Select all processes except those that fulfill
the specified conditions. (negates the selection) Identical
to -N
.
These options accept a single argument in the form of a blank-separated or comma-separated list. They can be used multiple times. For example:
ps-p
"1
2
"-p
3
,4
-C
cmdlist
Select by command name.
This selects the processes whose executable name is given
in cmdlist
.
-G
grplist
Select by real group ID (RGID
) or
name.
This selects the processes whose real group name or ID is in
the grplist list. The real group ID identifies the group of
the user who created the process,
see getgid(2).
U
userlist
Select by effective user ID (EUID
)
or name.
This selects the processes whose effective user name or ID is
in userlist
. The effective user ID
describes the user whose file access permissions are used by
the process (see getgid(2)). Identical to -u
and --user
.
-g
grplist
Select by session OR by effective group name.
Selection by session is specified by many standards, but
selection by effective group is the logical behavior that
several other operating systems use.
This ps will select by
session when the list is completely numeric (as sessions are).
Group ID numbers will work only when some group names are also
specified. See
the -s
and --group
options.
p
pidlist
Select by process ID. Identical
to -p
and --pid
.
-p
pidlist
Select by PID.
This selects the processes whose process ID numbers appear in
pidlist
. Identical
to -p
and --pid
.
-s
sesslist
Select by session ID.
This selects the processes with a session ID specified
in sesslist
.
t
ttylist
Select by tty. Nearly identical
to -t
and --tty
, but can
also be used with an empty ttylist
to indicate the terminal associated
with ps.
Using the T
option is considered cleaner
than using T
with an
empty ttylist
.
-t
ttylist
Select by tty.
This selects the processes associated with the terminals given
in ttylist
. Terminals (ttys, or
screens for text output) can be specified in several
forms: /dev/ttyS1
, ttyS1
, S1
. A plain "-
" may
be used to select processes not attached to any terminal.
-u
userlist
Select by effective user ID (EUID
)
or name.
This selects the processes whose effective user name or ID is
in userlist
. The effective user ID
describes the user whose file access permissions are used by
the process (see geteuid(2)). Identical
to U
and --user
.
--Group
grplist
Select by real group ID (RGID
) or
name. Identical to -G
.
--User
userlist
Select by real user ID (RUID
) or
name. Identical to -U
.
--group
grplist
Select by effective group ID (EGID
)
or name.
This selects the processes whose effective group name or ID is
in grplist
. The effective group ID
describes the group whose file access permissions are used by
the process (see getegid(2)). The -g
option is often an
alternative to --group
.
--pid
pidlist
Select by process ID. Identical
to -p
and p
.
--ppid
pidlist
Select by parent process ID. This selects the
processes with a parent process ID
in pidlist
.
That is, it selects processes that are children of those
listed in pidlist
.
--sid
sesslist
Select by session ID. Identical
to -s
.
--tty
ttylist
Select by terminal. Identical
to -t
and t
.
--user
userlist
Select by effective user ID (EUID
)
or name. Identical to -u
and U
.
-
pid
Identical
to --sid
pid
.
pid
Identical
to --pid
pid
.
These options are used to choose the information displayed by ps. The output may differ by personality.
-F
extra full format. See
the -f
option, which -F
implies.
-O
format
is like -o
, but preloaded with some
default columns. Identical to
ps-o
pid
,format
,state
,tname
,time
,command
or
ps-o
pid
,format
,tname
,time
,cmd
(see -o below).
O
format
is preloaded o
(overloaded).
The BSD O
option can act
like -O
(user-defined output format
with some common fields predefined) or can be used to specify
sort order. Heuristics are used to determine the behavior of
this option. To ensure that the desired behavior is obtained
(sorting or formatting), specify the option in some other way
(e.g. with -O
or --sort
). When
used as a formatting option, it is identical
to -O
, with the BSD personality.
-M
Add a column of security data.
Identical to Z
(for SE Linux).
X
Register format.
Z
Add a column of security data.
Identical to -M
(for SE Linux).
-c
-f
does full-format listing. This
option can be combined
with many other UNIX-style options to add additional columns. It
also causes the command arguments to be printed. When used
with -L
, the NLWP
(number of
threads) and LWP
(thread ID) columns will be added.
See the c
option, the format
keyword args
, and the format
keyword comm
.
j
BSD job control format.
-j
jobs format
l
display BSD long format.
-l
long format. The -y
option is often
useful with this.
o
format
specify user-defined format. Identical
to -o
and --format
.
-o
format
user-defined format.
format
is a single argument in the
form of a blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers
a way to specify individual output columns. The recognized
keywords are described in
the [STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS] section below.
Headers may be renamed (ps -o
pid
,rusers=
RealUser
-o
comm=
)
as desired. If all
column headers are empty (ps Command
-o
pid=
-o
comm=
) then the header
line will not be output. Column width will increase as needed
for wide headers; this may be used to widen up columns such as
WCHAN
(ps -o
pid
,wchan=WIDE-WCHAN-COLUMN
-o
comm
). Explicit
width control (ps -o
pid
,wchan:
42
,cmd
) is offered too. The
behavior of ps -o
pid=
X
,comm=
Y
varies with personality; output may be one column named
"X,comm=Y
" or two columns named
"X
"
and "Y
". Use multiple -o
options when in doubt. Use the PS_FORMAT
environment variable to specify a default as desired; DefSysV
and DefBSD are macros that may be used to choose the default
UNIX or BSD columns.
s
display signal format
u
display user-oriented format
v
display virtual memory format
--format
format
user-defined format. Identical
to -o
and o
.
--context
Display security context format (for SE Linux).
-H
show process hierarchy (forest)
N
namelist
Specify namelist file. Identical
to -n
, see -n
above.
O
format
is preloaded o
(overloaded).
The BSD O
option can act
like -O
(user-defined output format
with some common fields predefined) or can be used to specify
sort order. Heuristics are used to determine the behavior of
this option. To ensure that the desired behavior is obtained
(sorting or formatting), specify the option in some other way
(e.g. with -O
or --sort
). When
used as a formatting option, it is identical
to -O
, with the BSD personality.
For sorting, obsolete BSD O
option syntax
is O
[+
|-
]k1
[,[+
|-
]k2
[,
...
]]. It orders the processes
listing
according to the multilevel sort specified by the sequence of
one-letter short keys k1
,
k2
,...
described in the [OBSOLETE SORT KEYS] section
below. The +
is currently optional, merely
re-iterating the default direction on a key, but may help to
distinguish an O
sort from
an O
format. The -
reverses
direction only on the key it precedes.
S
Sum up some information, such as CPU usage, from dead child processes into their parent. This is useful for examining a system where a parent process repeatedly forks off short-lived children to do work.
c
Show the true command name. This is derived from
the name of the executable file, rather than from the argv
value. Command arguments and any modifications to them
(see setproctitle(3))
are thus not shown. This option effectively turns
the args
format keyword into
the comm
format
keyword; it is useful with the -f
format
option and with the various BSD-style format options, which
all normally display the command arguments. See
the -f
option, the format
keyword args
, and the format
keyword comm
.
e
Show the environment after the command.
f
ASCII-art process hierarchy (forest).
h
No header. (or, one header per screen in the BSD
personality) The h
option is problematic.
Standard BSD ps uses this option to print
a header on each page of output, but older
Linux ps uses this option to totally
disable the header. This version
of ps follows the Linux usage of not
printing the header unless the BSD personality has been
selected, in which case it prints a header on each page of
output. Regardless of the current personality, you can use
the long options --headers
and --no-headers
to enable printing headers each page
or disable headers entirely, respectively.
k
spec
specify sorting order. Sorting syntax
is [+
|-
]key
[,[+
|-
]key
[,...
...]] . Choose
a multi-letter key from the [STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS] section.
The +
is optional since
default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
order.
Identical to --sort
. Examples:
psj
a
x
k
u
i
d
,-ppid
,+pid
psa
x
k
comm
o
comm
,args
pskstart_time
-e
f
-n
namelist
set namelist file. Identical
to N
.
The namelist file is needed for a
proper WCHAN
display, and must match the
current Linux kernel exactly for correct output. Without
this option, the default search path for the namelist is:
$PS_SYSMAP $PS_SYSTEM_MAP /proc/*/wchan /boot/System.map-`uname -r` /boot/System.map /lib/modules/`uname -r`/System.map /usr/src/linux/System.map /System.map
n
Numeric output for WCHAN
and USER
. (including all types of UID and GID)
-w
Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
w
Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
--cols
n
set screen width
--columns
n
set screen width
--cumulative
include some dead child process data (as a sum with the parent)
--forest
ASCII art process tree
--headers
repeat header lines, one per page of output
--no-headers
print no header line at all
--lines
n
set screen height
--rows
n
set screen height
--sort
spec
specify sorting order. Sorting syntax
is [+
|-
]key
[,[+
|-
]key
[,...
...]] . Choose
a multi-letter key from the [STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS] section.
The +
is optional since
default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
order.
Identical to k
. For example:
psj
a
x
--sort=
uid
,-ppid
,+pid
This ps works by reading the virtual files in
/proc
. This ps does not need to
be setuid kmem
or have any privileges to run. Do not
give this ps any special permissions.
This ps needs access to namelist data for
proper WCHAN
display. For kernels prior to 2.6, the
System.map
file must be installed.
CPU
usage is currently expressed as the percentage of time
spent running during the entire lifetime of a process. This is not ideal, and
it does not conform to the standards that ps otherwise
conforms to. CPU
usage is unlikely to add up to exactly 100%.
The SIZE
and RSS
fields don't count some parts
of a process including the page tables, kernel stack, struct thread_info, and
struct task_struct. This is usually at least 20 KiB of memory that is always
resident. SIZE
is the virtual size of the process
(code+data+stack).
Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies") that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly. These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process exits.
The sum of these values is displayed in the F
column, which is
provided by the flags output specifier.
forked but didn't exec
used super-user privileges
Here are the different values that the s
, stat
and state
output specifiers
(header STAT
or S
) will display to describe the
state of a process.
Uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)
Running or runnable (on run queue)
Interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)
Stopped, either by a job control signal or because it is being traced.
paging (not valid since the 2.6.xx kernel)
dead (should never be seen)
Defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by its parent.
For BSD formats and when the stat
keyword is used,
additional characters may be displayed:
high-priority (not nice to other users)
low-priority (nice to other users)
has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom IO)
is a session leader
is multi-threaded
(using CLONE_THREAD
, like NPTL pthreads
do)
is in the foreground process group
These keys are used by the BSD O
option (when it is used
for sorting). The GNU --sort option doesn't use these
keys, but the specifiers described below in
the [STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS] section. Note that the values used in
sorting are the internal values ps uses and not the "cooked" values used in
some of the output format fields (e.g. sorting on tty will sort into device
number, not according to the terminal name displayed).
Pipe ps output into the sort(1) command if you want to sort the cooked values.
KEY | LONG | DESCRIPTION |
---|---|---|
c | cmd | simple name of executable |
C | pcpu | cpu utilization |
f | flags | flags as in long format F field |
g | pgrp | process group ID |
G | tpgid | controlling tty process group ID |
j | cutime | cumulative user time |
J | cstime | cumulative system time |
k | utime | user time |
m | min_flt | number of minor page faults |
M | maj_flt | number of major page faults |
n | cmin_flt | cumulative minor page faults |
N | cmaj_flt | cumulative major page faults |
o | session | session ID |
p | pid | process ID |
P | ppid | parent process ID |
r | rss | resident set size |
R | resident | resident pages |
s | size | memory size in kilobytes |
S | share | amount of shared pages |
t | tty | the device number of the controling tty |
T | start_time | time process was started |
U | uid | user ID number |
u | user | user name |
v | vsize | total VM size in kB |
y | priority | kernel scheduling priority |
This ps supports AIX format descriptors, which work
somewhat like the formatting codes of printf(1) and printf(3). For example, the normal default
output can be produced with this: ps -e
o
"%p
%y
%x
%c
". The
NORMAL
codes are described in the next section.
CODE | NORMAL | HEADER |
---|---|---|
%C | pcpu | %CPU |
%G | group | GROUP |
%P | ppid | PPID |
%U | user | USER |
%a | args | COMMAND |
%c | comm | COMMAND |
%g | rgroup | RGROUP |
%n | nice | NI |
%p | pid | PID |
%r | pgid | PGID |
%t | etime | ELAPSED |
%u | ruser | RUSER |
%x | time | TIME |
%y | tty | TTY |
%z | vsz | VSZ |
Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the output
format (e.g. with option -o
) or to sort the selected
processes with the GNU-style --sort
option.
For example: ps -e
o
pid
,user
,args
--sort
user
This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used in other implementations of ps.
The following user-defined format specifiers may contain
spaces: args
, cmd
, comm
, command
, fname
, ucmd
, ucomm
, lstart
, bsdstart
, start
.
Some keywords may not be available for sorting.
CODE | HEADER | DESCRIPTION |
---|---|---|
%cpu | %CPU | cpu utilization of the process in
"
Currently, it is the
CPU time used divided by the time
the process has been running (cputime/realtime ratio),
expressed as a percentage. It will not add up to 100%
unless you are lucky. (alias |
%mem | %MEM | ratio of the process's resident set size to the
physical memory on the machine, expressed as a
percentage. (alias |
args | COMMAND | command with all its arguments as a string. Modifications to the arguments may be shown.
The output in this column may contain spaces. A process
marked <defunct> is partly dead, waiting to be
fully destroyed by its parent. Sometimes the
process args will be unavailable; when this
happens,
When specified last, this column will extend to the
edge of the display. If ps can not determine
display width, as when output is redirected (piped)
into a file or another command, the output width is
undefined. (it may be 80, unlimited, determined by
the |
blocked | BLOCKED | mask of the blocked signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32-bit or
64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
(alias |
bsdstart | START | time the command started. If the process was started less than 24 hours ago, the output format is "HH:MM", else it is "mmm dd" (where mmm is the three letters of the month). |
bsdtime | TIME | accumulated cpu time, user + system. The display format is usualy "MMM:SS", but can be shifted to the right if the process used more than 999 minutes of cpu time. |
c | C | processor utilization.
Currently, this is the integer value of
the percent usage over the lifetime of the process
(see |
caught | CAUGHT | mask of the caught signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
(alias |
class | CLS | scheduling class of the process.
(alias Field's possible values are:
|
cls | CLS | scheduling class of the process.
(alias Field's possible values are:
|
cmd | CMD | see |
comm | COMMAND | command name (only the executable name).
Modifications to the command name will not be
shown. A process marked <defunct> is partly dead,
waiting to be fully destroyed by its parent. The
output in this column may contain spaces.
(alias
When specified last, this column will extend to the
edge of the display. If ps can not determine
display width, as when output is redirected (piped)
into a file or another command, the output width is
undefined. (it may be 80, unlimited, determined by
the |
command | COMMAND | see |
cp | CP | per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage
(see |
cputime | TIME | cumulative CPU time, "[dd-]hh:mm:ss" format.
(alias |
egid | EGID | effective group ID number of the process as a decimal integer.
(alias |
egroup | EGROUP | effective group ID of the process.
This will be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal representation
otherwise. (alias |
eip | EIP | instruction pointer. |
esp | ESP | stack pointer. |
etime | ELAPSED | elapsed time since the process was started, in the form [[dd-]hh:]mm:ss. |
euid | EUID | effective user ID. (alias |
euser | EUSER | effective user name. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
The |
f | F | flags associated with the process, see
the [PROCESS FLAGS]
section. (alias |
fgid | FGID | filesystem access group ID. (alias |
fgroup | FGROUP | filesystem access group ID. This will be the
textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal representation
otherwise. (alias |
flag | F | see |
flags | F | see |
fname | COMMAND | first 8 bytes of the base name of the process's executable file. The output in this column may contain spaces. |
fuid | FUID | filesystem access user ID. (alias |
fuser | FUSER | filesystem access user ID. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. |
gid | GID | see |
group | GROUP | see |
ignored | IGNORED | mask of the ignored signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32-bit or
64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
(alias |
label | LABEL | security label, most commonly used for SE Linux context data. This is for the Mandatory Access Control ("MAC") found on high-security systems. |
lstart | STARTED | time the command started. |
lwp | LWP | lwp (light weight process, or thread) ID of the lwp
being reported. (alias |
ni | NI | nice value.
This ranges from 19 (nicest) to -20
(not nice to others), see nice(1). (alias |
nice | NI | see |
nlwp | NLWP | number of lwps (threads) in the process.
(alias |
nwchan | WCHAN | address of the kernel function where the process is
sleeping (use Running tasks will display a dash ('-') in this column. |
pcpu | %CPU | see |
pending | PENDING | mask of the pending signals. See signal(7).
Signals pending on the process are distinct from signals
pending on individual threads. Use the |
pgid | PGID | process group ID or, equivalently, the process ID
of the process group leader. (alias |
pgrp | PGRP | see |
pid | PID | process ID number of the process. |
pmem | %MEM | see |
policy | POL | scheduling class of the process.
(alias Field's possible values are:
|
ppid | PPID | parent process ID. |
psr | PSR | processor that process is currently assigned to. |
rgid | RGID | real group ID. |
rgroup | RGROUP | real group name. This will be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. |
rss | RSS | resident set size, the non-swapped physical memory
that a task has used (in kiloBytes).
(alias |
rssize | RSS | see |
rsz | RSZ | see |
rtprio | RTPRIO | realtime priority. |
ruid | RUID | real user ID. |
ruser | RUSER | real user ID. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. |
s | S | minimal state display (one character).
See section [PROCESS STATE CODES] for the different values.
See also |
sched | SCH | scheduling policy of the process. The policies sched_other, sched_fifo, and sched_rr are respectively displayed as 0, 1, and 2. |
sess | SESS | session ID or, equivalently, the process ID of the
session leader. (alias |
sgi_p | P | processor that the process is currently executing on. Displays "*" if the process is not currently running or runnable. |
sgid | SGID | saved group ID. (alias |
sgroup | SGROUP | saved group name. This will be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. |
sid | SID | see |
sig | PENDING | see |
sigcatch | CAUGHT | see |
sigignore | IGNORED | see |
sigmask | BLOCKED | see |
size | SZ | approximate amount of swap space that would be required if the process were to dirty all writable pages and then be swapped out. This number is very rough! |
spid | SPID | see |
stackp | STACKP | address of the bottom (start) of stack for the process. |
start | STARTED | time the command started. If the process was started less than 24 hours ago, the output format is "HH:MM:SS", else it is " mmm dd" (where mmm is a three-letter month name). |
stat | STAT | multi-character process state.
See [PROCESS STATE CODES] for the different values meaning.
See also |
state | S | see |
suid | SUID | saved user ID. (alias |
suser | SUSER | saved user name.
This will be the textual user ID,
if it can be obtained and the field width permits,
or a decimal representation otherwise.
(alias |
svgid | SVGID | see |
svuid | SVUID | see |
sz | SZ | size in physical pages of the core image of the process.
This includes text, data, and stack space.
Device mappings are currently excluded; this is
subject to change.
See |
thcount | THCNT | number of kernel threads owned by the process.
see |
tid | TID | see |
time | TIME | cumulative CPU time, "[dd-]hh:mm:ss" format.
(alias |
tname | TTY | controlling tty (terminal).
(alias |
tpgid | TPGID | ID of the foreground process group on the tty (terminal) that the process is connected to, or -1 if the process is not connected to a tty. |
tt | TT | controlling tty (terminal).
(alias |
tty | TT | controlling tty (terminal).
(alias |
ucmd | CMD | see |
ucomm | COMMAND | see |
uid | UID | see |
uname | USER | see |
vsize | VSZ | see |
vsz | VSZ | virtual memory size of the process in KiB (1024-byte units).
Device mappings are currently excluded; this is subject to change.
(alias |
wchan | WCHAN | name of the kernel function in which the process is sleeping, a "-" if the process is running, or a "*" if the process is multi-threaded and ps is not displaying threads. |
The following environment variables could affect ps:
COLUMNS
Override default display width.
LINES
Override default display height.
PS_PERSONALITY
Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital ... (see section [PERSONALITY] below).
CMD_ENV
Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital ... (see section [PERSONALITY] below).
I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS
Force obsolete command line interpretation.
LC_TIME
Date format.
PS_COLORS
Not currently supported.
PS_FORMAT
Default output format override. You may set this
to a format string of the type used for
the -o
option.
The DefSysV
and DefBSD
values are particularly
useful.
PS_SYSMAP
Default namelist (System.map) location.
PS_SYSTEM_MAP
Default namelist (System.map) location.
POSIXLY_CORRECT
Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
POSIX2
When set to "on", acts as
POSIXLY_CORRECT
.
UNIX95
Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
_XPG
Cancel CMD_ENV
=irix non-standard
behavior.
In general, it is a bad idea to set these variables. The one exception
is CMD_ENV
or PS_PERSONALITY
, which could be set
to Linux for normal systems. Without that setting, ps follows the useless
and bad parts of the Unix98 standard.
390 | like the S/390 OpenEdition ps |
aix | like AIX ps |
bsd | like FreeBSD ps (totally non-standard) |
compaq | like Digital Unix ps |
debian | like the old Debian ps |
digital | like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps |
gnu | like the old Debian ps |
hp | like HP-UX ps |
hpux | like HP-UX ps |
irix | like Irix ps |
linux | ***** RECOMMENDED ***** |
old | like the original Linux ps (totally non-standard) |
os390 | like OS/390 Open Edition ps |
posix | standard |
s390 | like OS/390 Open Edition ps |
sco | like SCO ps |
sgi | like Irix ps |
solaris2 | like Solaris 2+ (SunOS 5) ps |
sunos4 | like SunOS 4 (Solaris 1) ps (totally non-standard) |
svr4 | standard |
sysv | standard |
tru64 | like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps |
unix | standard |
unix95 | standard |
unix98 | standard |
This ps conforms to:
Version 2 of the Single Unix Specification
The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 6
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
X/Open System Interfaces Extension [UP XSI]
ISO/IEC 9945:2003
ps was originally written by
Branko Lankester <lankeste@fwi.uva.nl>
.
Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com>
re-wrote it
significantly to use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the
process. Michael Shields <mjshield@nyx.cs.du.edu>
added the
pid-list feature. Charles Blake <cblake@bbn.com>
added
multi-level sorting, the dirent-style library, the device name-to-number
mmaped database, the approximate binary search directly on System.map, and
many code and documentation cleanups. David Mossberger-Tang wrote the generic
BFD support for psupdate. Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sf.net>
rewrote ps for full Unix98 and BSD support, along with some ugly hacks for
obsolete and foreign syntax.
Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>
.
No subscription is required or suggested.