ps -- display process status on Windows NT/2000 and POSIX compliant systems

ps display process status on Windows NT/2000 and POSIX compliant systems	Command

SYNOPSIS

ps [-Aacdefjl] [-G idlist] [-g grouplist] [-n name] [-o format] ... [-p proclist] [-s idlist] [-t termlist] [-U|u userlist]

DESCRIPTION

ps displays information about processes, provided that you have appropriate privileges to obtain information about the requested processes.

Options

ps accepts several options. When a description says that ps lists all processes, it means all the processes on the system, provided that you have appropriate privileges.

-A

displays information on all accessible processes. You can specify -A, -a, and -e in any combination, however, -a overrides both -A and -e.

-a

displays information on all processes associated with terminals. You can specify -A, -a, and -e in any combination, however, -a overrides both -A and -e.

-c

displays more detailed information about processes for the -f and -l options. Accepted but not currently implemented.

-d

displays information for all processes except group leaders.

-e

displays information on all accessible processes. You can specify -A, -a, and -e in any combination, however, -a overrides both -A and -e.

-f

displays information as if the user specified

-o ruser=UID -o pid,ppid,pcpu=C -o stime,tty=TTY
-o atime,args

-G idlist

displays information on processes with process group numbers in idlist. Separate numbers in idlist with either blanks or commas.

-g grouplist

displays information on processes with real group ID numbers in grouplist. Separate numbers in grouplist with either blanks or commas.

-j

displays information as if the user specified

-o_pid,sid,pgid=PGRP_-o_tty=TTY_-o_atime,comm

-l

displays information as if the user specified

-o_flags,state,ruid=UID_-o_pid,ppid,pcpu=C
-o pri,nice,addr,vsz=SZ -o wchan,tty=TTY
-o atime,comm=CMD

-n name

specifies the name of the executable containing the kernel symbol table.

-o format

displays information according to the given format specifications. For further information, see Format Specifications.

-p proclist

displays information for processes with process ID numbers in proclist. Separate numbers in proclist with either blanks or commas.

-s idlist

displays information for processes with session ID numbers in idlist. Separate numbers in idlist with either blanks or commas.

-t termlist

displays information for processes with terminals in termlist. You denote terminals in termlist with either the file name of the device (for example, tty04), or if the file name begins with tty, you can simply specify the characters following tty. For example, tty04 and 04 both denote the same terminal. Terminals in termlist are separated by either blanks or commas.

-U userlist

-u userlist

displays information for processes with user IDs in userlist. Items in userlist can be user ID numbers or login names, and are separated by either blanks or commas.

Format Specifications

The format specified with -o is a list of names separated with blanks or commas. At the beginning of the output display, ps displays column headings to tell you what you are seeing. For example, if you specify ruser (indicating that you want to see real user names), ps normally puts the heading RUSER at the top of the column that shows real user names.

If you do not specify the -o option, ps displays the information as though you specified

-o pid,tty=TTY -o atime,comm=CMD

The following list shows the names that ps recognizes. At the end of each description, we put the default column heading inside square brackets. The following names are POSIX-compliant.

args

displays the command that is executing, with all its arguments. [COMMAND]

comm

displays the name of the command that is executing. This string is padded on the right if necessary. [COMMAND]

etime

displays the amount of real time that has elapsed since the process began execution. ps shows the time in the form:

[[dd-]hh:]mm:ss

where dd is the number of days, hh is the number of hours, mm is the number of minutes, and ss is the number of seconds. [ELAPSED]

group

displays the effective group ID of the process, as a group name if possible and as a decimal group ID if not. [GROUP]

nice

displays the nice value (urgency) of the process as a decimal value. [NI]

pcpu

displays a percentage value giving the ratio of CPU time used to CPU time available. [%CPU]

pgid

displays the process group ID as a decimal value. [PGID]

pid

displays the process ID as a decimal value. [PID]

ppid

displays the parent process ID as a decimal value. [PPID]

rgroup

displays the real group ID of the process, as a group name if possible and as a decimal group ID if not. [RGROUP]

ruser

displays the real userid of the process, as a username if possible and as a decimal user ID otherwise. [RUSER]

time

displays the amount of CPU time that the process has used since it began execution. ps displays this time in form similar to that used by etime. [TIME]

tty

displays the name of the controlling terminal (if any). [TT]

user

displays the effective userid of the process, as a username if possible and as a decimal user ID otherwise. [USER]

vsz

displays the amount of (virtual) memory that the process is using, as a decimal number of kilobytes. [VSZ]

The following names are MKS Toolkit extensions to ps.

addr: displays the address of the process. [ADDR]
atime: displays the abbreviated CPU time of the process. [TIME]
flags: displays the process flags. [F]
gid: displays the effective group ID of the process. [EGID]
pri: displays the process priority. [PRI]
rgid: displays the real group ID of the process. [GID]
rss: displays the resident set size of the process. This is the amount of physical memory actually used by the process.
ruid: displays the real user ID of the process. [UID]
sid: displays the session ID of the process. [SID]
state: displays the process state. [S]
stime: displays the start time of the process. [STIME]
uid: displays the effective user ID of the process. [EUID]
wchan: displays the channel upon which the process is waiting. [WCHAN]
xpid: displays the process ID in hexadecimal.

If you want to specify your own column heading instead of the defaults, put

=heading

after the name in the format list. For example,

ps -o args,ruser=WHO

displays the command and the real user name. The heading for the command column is the default COMMAND but the heading for the user name column is WHO. If you specify = with no heading, ps displays that column without a heading. If all columns have no heading, ps displays no heading line.

DIAGNOSTICS

Possible exit status values are:

0

Successful completion.

1

Failure due to any of the following:

— the inability to open the process table

2

Usage error, including any of the following:

— unknown command line option

— missing format string after -o

— missing lists after other options

— too many arguments on the command line

PORTABILITY

POSIX.2. x/OPEN Portability Guide 4.0.

The -c, -d, -e, -f, -g, -l, -n, and -u options are x/OPEN extensions to the POSIX standard. The -j and -s options are extensions to both the x/OPEN and POSIX standards.

ps

Command

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Options

Format Specifications

DIAGNOSTICS

PORTABILITY

SEE ALSO