ps(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) ps(1BSD)
NAME
ps - (BSD) 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. Additional categories of processes
can be added to the display using various 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
terminals. 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.
The following options must all be combined to form the first
argument:
-a Include information about processes owned by others.
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ps(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) ps(1BSD)
-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 the private database (/etc/ps_data) where ps keeps
system information. This option may be used solely by
privileged users.
-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 information 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. Terminal 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,
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ps(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) ps(1BSD)
just the digit identifier (for example, 04).
num A process number may be given, in which case the output
is restricted to that process. This option must be
supplied last.
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(3BSD) and
nice(3BSD)].
SIZE
SZ The combined size of the data and stack segments (in
kilobyte units)
RSS Real memory (resident set) size of the process (in
kilobyte 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
process:
00 Process has terminated. Process table now
available.
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ps(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) ps(1BSD)
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.
FILES
/dev
/dev/sxt/*
/dev/tty*
/dev/xt/* terminal (tty) names searcher files
/proc/* process information
/etc/passwd UID information supplier
/etc/ps_data internal data structure
REFERENCES
getpriority(3BSD), kill(1), lseek(2), nice(2), nice(3BSD),
whodo(1M)
NOTICES
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 associated 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.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 4