ps(1) ps(1)NAME ps - report process status SYNOPSIS ps [-e] [-d] [-a] [-f] [-l] [-ccorefile] [-sswapdev] [-nnamelist] [-ttermlist] [-pproclist] [-uuidlist] [-ggrplist] DESCRIPTION ps prints certain information about active processes. Without flag options, information is printed about processes associated with the current terminal. The output consists of a short listing containing only the process ID, terminal identifier, cumulative execution time, and the command name. Otherwise, the information that is displayed is controlled by the selection of flag options. Flag options using lists as arguments may have the list specified in one of two forms: a list of identifiers separated from one another by a comma, or a list of identif- iers enclosed in double quotes and separated from one anoth- er by a comma and/or one or more spaces. The flag options are: -e Print information about all processes. -d Print information about all processes, except process group leaders. -a Print information about all processes, except process group leaders and processes not associ- ated with a terminal. -f Generate a full listing. (See below for mean- ing of columns in a full listing). -l Generate a long listing. See below. -ccorefile Use the file corefile in place of /dev/kmem. -sswapdev Use the file swapdev in place of /dev/swap. This is useful when examining a corefile; a swapdev of /dev/null will cause the user block to be zeroed out. -nnamelist The argument will be taken as the name of an alternate namelist file in place of /unix. -ttermlist Restrict listing to data about the processes associated with the terminals given in term- list. The termlist may be in one of two forms: a list of terminal identifiers separated from one another by a comma, or a list of terminal identifiers enclosed in double quotes and separated from one another by a command and/or one or more spaces. Terminal identifiers may be specified in one of two forms: the device's filename (e.g., tty04), or, if the device's filename starts with tty, just the digit iden- April, 1990 1
ps(1) ps(1)tifier (e.g., 04). -pproclist Restrict listing to data about processes whose process ID numbers are given in proclist. -uuidlist Restrict listing to data about processes whose user ID numbers or login names are given in uidlist. In the listing, the numerical user ID will be printed unless the -f flag option is used, in which case the login name will be printed. -ggrplist Restrict listing to data about processes whose process group leaders are given in grplist. The column headings and the meaning of the columns in a ps listing are given below; the letters f and l indicate the option (full or long), respectively, that causes the corresponding heading to appear; all means that the heading always appears. Note that these two flag options determine only what information is provided for a process; they do not determine which processes will be listed. F (l) Flags (hex and additive) associated with the process: 0 swapped; 1 system process; 2 being traced by another process; 4 another tracing flag; 8 process cannot be woken by a sig- nal; 10 in core; 20 locked in memory; 100 process group leader; 200 faulting in page 400 COFF binary 1000 process is using select system call 2000 timing out during sleep 4000 4.2-style job control 8000 restore old mask after signal S (l) The state of the process: - nonexistent; S sleeping; R running; I intermediate (between states); Z terminated; T stopped. O as running on CPU X waiting for virtual memory UID (f,l) The user ID number of the process owner; the login name is printed under the -f flag op- tion. PID (all) The process ID of the process; it is possible to kill a process if you know this datum. 2 April, 1990
ps(1) ps(1)PPID (f,l) The process ID of the parent process. C (f,l) Processor utilization for scheduling. PRI (l) The priority of the process; higher numbers mean lower priority. NI (l) Nice value; used in priority computation. ADDR (l) The memory address of the u-area (a pointer to the page tables) of the process, if resident; otherwise, the disk address. SZ (l) The size in logical pages of the core image of the process. WCHAN (l) The event for which the process is waiting or sleeping; if blank, the process is running. STIME (f) Starting time of the process. TTY (all) The controlling terminal for the process. TIME (all) The cumulative execution time for the process. COMMAND(all) The command name; the full command name and its arguments are printed under the -f flag option. A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been waited for by the parent, is marked defunct. Under the -f flag option, ps tries to determine the command name and arguments given when the process was created by ex- amining memory or the swap area. Failing this, the command name, as it would appear without the -f flag option, is printed in square brackets. EXAMPLES ps -ef displays information about all processes, with or without terminals. FILES /bin/ps /unix A/UX kernel /dev/kmem memory /dev/swap the default swap device /etc/passwd supplies UID information /etc/ps_data internal data structure /dev searched to find terminal (tty) names SEE ALSO acctcom(1), kill(1), nice(1), pstat(1), w(1). BUGS Things can change while ps is running; the picture it gives is only a close approximation to reality. Some data printed for defunct processes are irrelevant. April, 1990 3
ps(1) ps(1)Processes which are swapped onto other than the default swap device (see swap(1M)) will have some invalid information printed out. 4 April, 1990