ps(1-ucb) (BSD Compatibility Package) ps(1-ucb)
NAME
ps - display the status of current processes
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/ps [-acglnrSuUvwx] [-tterm] [num]
DESCRIPTION
The ps command displays information about processes. Normally, only
those processes that are running with your effective user ID and are
attached to a controlling terminal [see termio(7)] are shown. Addi-
tional categories of processes can be added to the display using vari-
ous options. In particular, the -a option allows you to include
processes that are not owned by you (that do not have your user ID),
and the -x option allows you to include processes without control ter-
minals. When you specify both -a and -x, you get processes owned by
anyone, with or without a control terminal. The -r option restricts
the list of processes printed to running and runnable processes.
ps displays the process ID, under PID; the control terminal (if any),
under TT; the CPU time used by the process so far, including both user
and system time, under TIME; the state of the process, under S; and
finally, an indication of the COMMAND that is running.
The state is given by a single letter from the following:
O Process is running on a processor.
S Sleeping. Process is waiting for an event to complete.
R Runnable. Process is on run queue.
I Idle. Process is being created.
Z Zombie state. Process terminated and parent not waiting.
T Traced. Process stopped by a signal because parent is tracing it.
X SXBRK state. Process is waiting for more primary memory.
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OPTIONS
The following options must all be combined to form the first argument:
-a Include information about processes owned by others.
-c Display the command name, as stored internally in the system for
purposes of accounting, rather than the command arguments, which
are kept in the process' address space. This is more reliable, if
less informative, since the process is free to destroy the latter
information.
-g Display all processes. Without this option, ps only prints
interesting processes. Processes are deemed to be uninteresting
if they are process group leaders. This normally eliminates top-
level command interpreters and processes waiting for users to
login on free terminals.
-l Display a long listing, with fields F, PPID, CP, PRI, NI, SZ, RSS
and WCHAN as described below.
-n Produce numerical output for some fields. In a user listing, the
USER field is replaced by a UID field.
-r Restrict output to running and runnable processes.
-S Display accumulated CPU time used by this process and all of its
reaped children.
-u Display user-oriented output. This includes fields USER, SZ, RSS
and START as described below.
-U Update a private database where ps keeps system information (sys-
tem administrator only).
-v Display a version of the output containing virtual memory. This
includes fields SIZE and RSS, described below.
-w Use a wide output format (132 columns rather than 80); if
repeated, that is, -ww, use arbitrarily wide output. This infor-
mation is used to decide how much of long commands to print.
-x Include processes with no controlling terminal.
-tterm
List only process data associated with the terminal, term. Termi-
nal identifiers may be specified in one of two forms: the
device's file name (for example, tty04 or term/14) or, if the
device's file name starts with tty, just the digit identifier
(for example, 04).
num A process number may be given, in which case the output is re-
stricted to that process. This option must be supplied last.
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DISPLAY FORMATS
Fields that are not common to all output formats:
USER Name of the owner of the process.
NI Process scheduling increment [see getpriority(3) and
nice(3C-ucb)].
SIZE
SZ The combined size of the data and stack segments (in kilo-
byte units).
RSS Real memory (resident set) size of the process (in kilo-
byte units).
UID Numerical user-ID of process owner.
PPID Numerical ID of parent of process.
CP Short-term CPU utilization factor (used in scheduling).
PRI The priority of the process (higher numbers mean lower
priority).
START The starting time of the process, given in hours, minutes,
and seconds. A process begun more than 24 hours before the
ps inquiry is executed is given in months and days.
WCHAN The address of an event for which the process is sleeping,
or in SXBRK state (if blank, the process is running).
F Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with the pro-
cess:
00 Process has terminated. Process table now available.
01 A system process, always in primary memory.
02 Parent is tracing process.
04 Tracing parent's signal has stopped process. Parent
is waiting [see ptrace(2)].
08 Process is currently in primary memory.
10 Process currently in primary memory, locked until an
event is completed.
A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been
waited for by the parent is marked <defunct>; otherwise, ps tries to
determine the command name and arguments given when the process was
created by examining the user block.
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NOTES
Things can change while ps is running; the picture it gives is only a
close approximation to the current state. Some data printed for
defunct processes is irrelevant.
If no term or num is specified, ps checks the standard input, the
standard output, and the standard error in that order, looking for the
controlling terminal and will attempt to report on processes associ-
ated with the controlling terminal. In this situation, if the standard
input, the standard output, and the standard error are all redirected,
ps will not find a controlling terminal, so there will be no report.
On a heavily loaded system, ps may report an lseek(2) error and exit.
ps may seek to an invalid user area address, having obtained the
address of process' user area, ps may not be able to seek to that
address before the process exits and the address becomes invalid.
FILES
/dev
/dev/sxt/*
/dev/tty*
/dev/xt/*
terminal (tty) names searcher files
/dev/kmem
kernel virtual memory
/dev/swap
default swap device
/dev/mem
memory
/etc/passwd
UID information supplier
/etc/psdata
internal data structure
SEE ALSO
kill(1), whodo(1M), lseek(2), getpriority(3), nice(3C-ucb).
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