NAME

ps − process status

SYNOPSIS

ps [ aklx ] [ namelist ]

DESCRIPTION

Ps prints certain indicia about active processes.  The a flag asks for information about all processes with typewriters (ordinarily only one’s own processes are displayed); x asks even about processes with no typewriter; l asks for a long listing.  Ordinarily only the typewriter number (if not one’s own), the process number, and an approximation to the command line are given.  If the k flag is specified, the file /usr/sys/core is used in place of /dev/mem.  This is used for postmortem system debugging.  If a second argument is given, it is taken to be the file containing the system’s namelist.  The long listing is columnar and contains

The name of the process’s control typewriter. 

Flags associated with the process.  01: in core; 02: system process; 04: locked in code (e.g. for physical I/O); 10: being swapped; 20: being traced by another process. 

The state of the process.  0: nonexistent; S: sleeping; W: waiting; R: running; Z: terminated; T: stopped.  The user ID of the process owner. The process ID of the process; as in certain cults it is possible to kill a process if you know its true name. The priority of the process; high numbers mean low priority. The size in blocks of the core image of the process. The event for which the process is waiting or sleeping; if blank, the process is running. The command and its arguments.

Ps makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the process was created by examining core memory or the swap area.  The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be counted on too much. 

FILES

/unixsystem namelist
/dev/memcore memory
/usr/sys/corealternate core file
/devsearched to find swap device and typewriter names

SEE ALSO

kill (I)

BUGS