1PSTREE(1)                        User Commands                       PSTREE(1)
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NAME

6       pstree - display a tree of processes
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SYNOPSIS

9       pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact-not] [-C, --color attr]
10       [-g, --show-pgids] [-h, --highlight-all, -H pid, --highlight-pid pid]
11       [-l, --long] [-n, --numeric-sort] [-N, --ns-sort ns] [-p, --show-pids]
12       [-s, --show-parents] [-S, --ns-changes] [-t, --thread-names]
13       [-T, --hide-threads] [-u, --uid-changes] [-Z, --security-context]
14       [-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode] [pid, user]
15       pstree -V, --version
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DESCRIPTION

18       pstree shows running processes as a tree.  The tree is rooted at either
19       pid  or  init  if  pid  is  omitted.   If a user name is specified, all
20       process trees rooted at processes owned by that user are shown.
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22       pstree visually merges identical branches by  putting  them  in  square
23       brackets and prefixing them with the repetition count, e.g.
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25           init-+-getty
26                |-getty
27                |-getty
28                `-getty
29
30       becomes
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32           init---4*[getty]
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35       Child  threads  of a process are found under the parent process and are
36       shown with the process name in curly braces, e.g.
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38           icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]
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41       If pstree is called as pstree.x11 then it will prompt the user  at  the
42       end of the line to press return and will not return until that has hap‐
43       pened.  This is useful for when pstree is run in a xterminal.
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45       Certain kernel or mount parameters, such  as  the  hidepid  option  for
46       procfs,  will  hide information for some processes. In these situations
47       pstree will attempt to build the tree without this information, showing
48       process names as question marks.
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OPTIONS

52       -a     Show  command  line arguments.  If the command line of a process
53              is swapped out, that process is shown in  parentheses.   -a  im‐
54              plicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.
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56       -A     Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.
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58       -c     Disable  compaction of identical subtrees.  By default, subtrees
59              are compacted whenever possible.
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61       -C     Color the process name by given attribute. Currently pstree only
62              accepts  the  value  age which colors by process age.  Processes
63              newer than 60 seconds are green, newer than an hour  yellow  and
64              the remaining red.
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66       -g     Show  PGIDs.   Process Group IDs are shown as decimal numbers in
67              parentheses after each process name.  If both PIDs and PGIDs are
68              displayed then PIDs are shown first.
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70       -G     Use VT100 line drawing characters.
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72       -h     Highlight  the current process and its ancestors.  This is a no-
73              op if the terminal doesn't support highlighting  or  if  neither
74              the  current process nor any of its ancestors are in the subtree
75              being shown.
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77       -H     Like -h, but highlight the specified  process  instead.   Unlike
78              with  -h,  pstree  fails  when  using  -H if highlighting is not
79              available.
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81       -l     Display long lines.  By default, lines are truncated  to  either
82              the  COLUMNS environment variable or the display width.  If nei‐
83              ther of these methods work, the default of 132 columns is used.
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85       -n     Sort processes with the same parent by PID instead of  by  name.
86              (Numeric sort.)
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88       -N     Show  individual trees for each namespace of the type specified.
89              The available types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid,  time,  user,  uts.
90              Regular users don't have access to other users' processes infor‐
91              mation, so the output will be limited.
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93       -p     Show PIDs.  PIDs are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses af‐
94              ter each process name.  -p implicitly disables compaction.
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96       -s     Show parent processes of the specified process.
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98       -S     Show  namespaces  transitions.   Like  -N, the output is limited
99              when running as a regular user.
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101       -t     Show full names for threads when available.
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103       -T     Hide threads and only show processes.
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105       -u     Show uid transitions.  Whenever the uid  of  a  process  differs
106              from  the uid of its parent, the new uid is shown in parentheses
107              after the process name.
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109       -U     Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters.  Under Linux 1.1-54
110              and  above,  UTF-8  mode  is entered on the console with echo -e
111              ' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'.
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113       -V     Display version information.
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115       -Z     Show the current security attributes of the process. For SELinux
116              systems this will be the security context.
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FILES

119       /proc  location of the proc file system
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BUGS

122       Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.
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SEE ALSO

125       ps(1), top(1), proc(5).
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129psmisc                            2021-06-21                         PSTREE(1)