1PS(1) User Commands PS(1)
2
6 ps - report a snapshot of the current processes.
7
9 ps [options]
10
12 ps displays information about a selection of the active processes. If
13 you want a repetitive update of the selection and the displayed
14 information, use top instead.
15 This version of ps accepts several kinds of options:
17 1 UNIX options, which may be grouped and must be preceded by a dash.
19 2 BSD options, which may be grouped and must not be used with a dash.
20 3 GNU long options, which are preceded by two dashes.
21 Options of different types may be freely mixed, but conflicts can
23 appear. There are some synonymous options, which are functionally
24 identical, due to the many standards and ps implementations that this
25 ps is compatible with.
26 Note that ps -aux is distinct from ps aux. The POSIX and UNIX
28 standards require that ps -aux print all processes owned by a user
29 named x, as well as printing all processes that would be selected by
30 the -a option. If the user named x does not exist, this ps may
31 interpret the command as ps aux instead and print a warning. This
32 behavior is intended to aid in transitioning old scripts and habits.
33 It is fragile, subject to change, and thus should not be relied upon.
34 By default, ps selects all processes with the same effective user ID
36 (euid=EUID) as the current user and associated with the same terminal
37 as the invoker. It displays the process ID (pid=PID), the terminal
38 associated with the process (tname=TTY), the cumulated CPU time in
39 [DD-]hh:mm:ss format (time=TIME), and the executable name (ucmd=CMD).
40 Output is unsorted by default.
41 The use of BSD-style options will add process state (stat=STAT) to the
43 default display and show the command args (args=COMMAND) instead of the
44 executable name. You can override this with the PS_FORMAT environment
45 variable. The use of BSD-style options will also change the process
46 selection to include processes on other terminals (TTYs) that are owned
47 by you; alternately, this may be described as setting the selection to
48 be the set of all processes filtered to exclude processes owned by
49 other users or not on a terminal. These effects are not considered
50 when options are described as being "identical" below, so -M will be
51 considered identical to Z and so on.
52 Except as described below, process selection options are additive. The
54 default selection is discarded, and then the selected processes are
55 added to the set of processes to be displayed. A process will thus be
56 shown if it meets any of the given selection criteria.
57
59 To see every process on the system using standard syntax:
60 ps -e
61 ps -ef
62 ps -eF
63 ps -ely
64 To see every process on the system using BSD syntax:
66 ps ax
67 ps axu
68 To print a process tree:
70 ps -ejH
71 ps axjf
72 To get info about threads:
74 ps -eLf
75 ps axms
76 To get security info:
78 ps -eo euser,ruser,suser,fuser,f,comm,label
79 ps axZ
80 ps -eM
81 To see every process running as root (real & effective ID) in user
83 format:
84 ps -U root -u root u
85 To see every process with a user-defined format:
87 ps -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,psr,pcpu,stat,wchan:14,comm
88 ps axo stat,euid,ruid,tty,tpgid,sess,pgrp,ppid,pid,pcpu,comm
89 ps -Ao pid,tt,user,fname,tmout,f,wchan
90 Print only the process IDs of syslogd:
92 ps -C syslogd -o pid=
93 Print only the name of PID 42:
95 ps -q 42 -o comm=
96
98 a Lift the BSD-style "only yourself" restriction, which is imposed
99 upon the set of all processes when some BSD-style (without "-")
100 options are used or when the ps personality setting is BSD-like.
101 The set of processes selected in this manner is in addition to
102 the set of processes selected by other means. An alternate
103 description is that this option causes ps to list all processes
104 with a terminal (tty), or to list all processes when used
105 together with the x option.
106 -A Select all processes. Identical to -e.
108 -a Select all processes except both session leaders (see getsid(2))
110 and processes not associated with a terminal.
111 -d Select all processes except session leaders.
113 --deselect
115 Select all processes except those that fulfill the specified
116 conditions (negates the selection). Identical to -N.
117 -e Select all processes. Identical to -A.
119 g Really all, even session leaders. This flag is obsolete and may
121 be discontinued in a future release. It is normally implied by
122 the a flag, and is only useful when operating in the sunos4
123 personality.
124 -N Select all processes except those that fulfill the specified
126 conditions (negates the selection). Identical to --deselect.
127 T Select all processes associated with this terminal. Identical
129 to the t option without any argument.
130 r Restrict the selection to only running processes.
132 x Lift the BSD-style "must have a tty" restriction, which is
134 imposed upon the set of all processes when some BSD-style
135 (without "-") options are used or when the ps personality
136 setting is BSD-like. The set of processes selected in this
137 manner is in addition to the set of processes selected by other
138 means. An alternate description is that this option causes ps
139 to list all processes owned by you (same EUID as ps), or to list
140 all processes when used together with the a option.
141
143 These options accept a single argument in the form of a blank-separated
144 or comma-separated list. They can be used multiple times. For
145 example: ps -p "1 2" -p 3,4
146 -123 Identical to --pid 123.
148 123 Identical to --pid 123.
150 -C cmdlist
152 Select by command name. This selects the processes whose
153 executable name is given in cmdlist. NOTE: The command name is
154 not the same as the command line. Previous versions of procps
155 and the kernel truncated this command name to 15 characters.
156 This limitation is no longer present in both. If you depended on
157 matching only 15 characters, you may no longer get a match.
158 -G grplist
160 Select by real group ID (RGID) or name. This selects the
161 processes whose real group name or ID is in the grplist list.
162 The real group ID identifies the group of the user who created
163 the process, see getgid(2).
164 -g grplist
166 Select by session OR by effective group name. Selection by
167 session is specified by many standards, but selection by
168 effective group is the logical behavior that several other
169 operating systems use. This ps will select by session when the
170 list is completely numeric (as sessions are). Group ID numbers
171 will work only when some group names are also specified. See
172 the -s and --group options.
173 --Group grplist
175 Select by real group ID (RGID) or name. Identical to -G.
176 --group grplist
178 Select by effective group ID (EGID) or name. This selects the
179 processes whose effective group name or ID is in grplist. The
180 effective group ID describes the group whose file access
181 permissions are used by the process (see getegid(2)). The -g
182 option is often an alternative to --group.
183 p pidlist
185 Select by process ID. Identical to -p and --pid.
186 -p pidlist
188 Select by PID. This selects the processes whose process ID
189 numbers appear in pidlist. Identical to p and --pid.
190 --pid pidlist
192 Select by process ID. Identical to -p and p.
193 --ppid pidlist
195 Select by parent process ID. This selects the processes with a
196 parent process ID in pidlist. That is, it selects processes
197 that are children of those listed in pidlist.
198 q pidlist
200 Select by process ID (quick mode). Identical to -q and
201 --quick-pid.
202 -q pidlist
204 Select by PID (quick mode). This selects the processes whose
205 process ID numbers appear in pidlist. With this option ps reads
206 the necessary info only for the pids listed in the pidlist and
207 doesn't apply additional filtering rules. The order of pids is
208 unsorted and preserved. No additional selection options, sorting
209 and forest type listings are allowed in this mode. Identical to
210 q and --quick-pid.
211 --quick-pid pidlist
213 Select by process ID (quick mode). Identical to -q and q.
214 -s sesslist
216 Select by session ID. This selects the processes with a session
217 ID specified in sesslist.
218 --sid sesslist
220 Select by session ID. Identical to -s.
221 t ttylist
223 Select by tty. Nearly identical to -t and --tty, but can also
224 be used with an empty ttylist to indicate the terminal
225 associated with ps. Using the T option is considered cleaner
226 than using t with an empty ttylist.
227 -t ttylist
229 Select by tty. This selects the processes associated with the
230 terminals given in ttylist. Terminals (ttys, or screens for
231 text output) can be specified in several forms: /dev/ttyS1,
232 ttyS1, S1. A plain "-" may be used to select processes not
233 attached to any terminal.
234 --tty ttylist
236 Select by terminal. Identical to -t and t.
237 U userlist
239 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. This selects the
240 processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist. The
241 effective user ID describes the user whose file access
242 permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)). Identical
243 to -u and --user.
244 -U userlist
246 Select by real user ID (RUID) or name. It selects the processes
247 whose real user name or ID is in the userlist list. The real
248 user ID identifies the user who created the process, see
249 getuid(2).
250 -u userlist
252 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. This selects the
253 processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist.
254 The effective user ID describes the user whose file access
256 permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)). Identical
257 to U and --user.
258 --User userlist
260 Select by real user ID (RUID) or name. Identical to -U.
261 --user userlist
263 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. Identical to -u and
264 U.
265
267 These options are used to choose the information displayed by ps. The
268 output may differ by personality.
269 -c Show different scheduler information for the -l option.
271 --context
273 Display security context format (for SELinux).
274 -f Do full-format listing. This option can be combined with many
276 other UNIX-style options to add additional columns. It also
277 causes the command arguments to be printed. When used with -L,
278 the NLWP (number of threads) and LWP (thread ID) columns will be
279 added. See the c option, the format keyword args, and the
280 format keyword comm.
281 -F Extra full format. See the -f option, which -F implies.
283 --format format
285 user-defined format. Identical to -o and o.
286 j BSD job control format.
288 -j Jobs format.
290 l Display BSD long format.
292 -l Long format. The -y option is often useful with this.
294 -M Add a column of security data. Identical to Z (for SELinux).
296 O format
298 is preloaded o (overloaded). The BSD O option can act like -O
299 (user-defined output format with some common fields predefined)
300 or can be used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
301 determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that the
302 desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting), specify
303 the option in some other way (e.g. with -O or --sort). When
304 used as a formatting option, it is identical to -O, with the BSD
305 personality.
306 -O format
308 Like -o, but preloaded with some default columns. Identical to
309 -o pid,format,state,tname,time,command or -o pid,format,tname,
310 time,cmd, see -o below.
311 o format
313 Specify user-defined format. Identical to -o and --format.
314 -o format
316 User-defined format. format is a single argument in the form of
317 a blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers a way to
318 specify individual output columns. The recognized keywords are
319 described in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section below.
320 Headers may be renamed (ps -o pid,ruser=RealUser -o
321 comm=Command) as desired. If all column headers are empty (ps
322 -o pid= -o comm=) then the header line will not be output.
323 Column width will increase as needed for wide headers; this may
324 be used to widen up columns such as WCHAN (ps -o pid,wchan=WIDE-
325 WCHAN-COLUMN -o comm). Explicit width control (ps opid,
326 wchan:42,cmd) is offered too. The behavior of ps -o pid=X,
327 comm=Y varies with personality; output may be one column named
328 "X,comm=Y" or two columns named "X" and "Y". Use multiple -o
329 options when in doubt. Use the PS_FORMAT environment variable
330 to specify a default as desired; DefSysV and DefBSD are macros
331 that may be used to choose the default UNIX or BSD columns.
332 -P Add a column showing psr.
334 s Display signal format.
336 u Display user-oriented format.
338 v Display virtual memory format.
340 X Register format.
342 -y Do not show flags; show rss in place of addr. This option can
344 only be used with -l.
345 Z Add a column of security data. Identical to -M (for SELinux).
347
349 c Show the true command name. This is derived from the name of
350 the executable file, rather than from the argv value. Command
351 arguments and any modifications to them are thus not shown.
352 This option effectively turns the args format keyword into the
353 comm format keyword; it is useful with the -f format option and
354 with the various BSD-style format options, which all normally
355 display the command arguments. See the -f option, the format
356 keyword args, and the format keyword comm.
357 --cols n
359 Set screen width.
360 --columns n
362 Set screen width.
363 --cumulative
365 Include some dead child process data (as a sum with the parent).
366 -D format
369 Set the date format of the lstart field to format. This format
370 is parsed by strftime(3) and should be a maximum of 24
371 characters to not mis-align columns.
372 --date-format format
374 Identical to -D.
375 e Show the environment after the command.
377 f ASCII art process hierarchy (forest).
379 --forest
381 ASCII art process tree.
382 h No header. (or, one header per screen in the BSD personality).
384 The h option is problematic. Standard BSD ps uses this option
385 to print a header on each page of output, but older Linux ps
386 uses this option to totally disable the header. This version of
387 ps follows the Linux usage of not printing the header unless the
388 BSD personality has been selected, in which case it prints a
389 header on each page of output. Regardless of the current
390 personality, you can use the long options --headers and
391 --no-headers to enable printing headers each page or disable
392 headers entirely, respectively.
393 -H Show process hierarchy (forest).
395 --headers
397 Repeat header lines, one per page of output.
398 k spec Specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
400 [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]. Choose a multi-letter key from the
401 STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is optional since
402 default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
403 order. Identical to --sort.
404 Examples:
406 ps jaxkuid,-ppid,+pid
407 ps axk comm o comm,args
408 ps kstart_time -ef
409 --lines n
411 Set screen height.
412 n Numeric output for WCHAN and USER (including all types of UID
414 and GID).
415 --no-headers
417 Print no header line at all. --no-heading is an alias for this
418 option.
419 O order
421 Sorting order (overloaded). The BSD O option can act like -O
422 (user-defined output format with some common fields predefined)
423 or can be used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
424 determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that the
425 desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting), specify
426 the option in some other way (e.g. with -O or --sort).
427 For sorting, obsolete BSD O option syntax is
429 O[+|-]k1[,[+|-]k2[,...]]. It orders the processes listing
430 according to the multilevel sort specified by the sequence of
431 one-letter short keys k1,k2, ... described in the OBSOLETE SORT
432 KEYS section below. The "+" is currently optional, merely
433 re-iterating the default direction on a key, but may help to
434 distinguish an O sort from an O format. The "-" reverses
435 direction only on the key it precedes.
436 --rows n
438 Set screen height.
439 S Sum up some information, such as CPU usage, from dead child
441 processes into their parent. This is useful for examining a
442 system where a parent process repeatedly forks off short-lived
443 children to do work.
444 --sort spec
446 Specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
447 [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]. Choose a multi-letter key from the
448 STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is optional since
449 default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
450 order. Identical to k. For example: ps jax --sort=uid,-ppid,
451 +pid
452 w Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
454 -w Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
456 --width n
458 Set screen width.
459
461 H Show threads as if they were processes.
462 -L Show threads, possibly with LWP and NLWP columns.
464 m Show threads after processes.
466 -m Show threads after processes.
468 -T Show threads, possibly with SPID column.
470
472 --help section
473 Print a help message. The section argument can be one of
474 simple, list, output, threads, misc, or all. The argument can
475 be shortened to one of the underlined letters as in:
476 s|l|o|t|m|a.
477 --info Print debugging info.
479 L List all format specifiers.
481 V Print the procps-ng version.
483 -V Print the procps-ng version.
485 --version
487 Print the procps-ng version.
488
490 This ps works by reading the virtual files in /proc. This ps does not
491 need to be setuid kmem or have any privileges to run. Do not give this
492 ps any special permissions.
493 CPU usage is currently expressed as the percentage of time spent
495 running during the entire lifetime of a process. This is not ideal,
496 and it does not conform to the standards that ps otherwise conforms to.
497 CPU usage is unlikely to add up to exactly 100%.
498 The SIZE and RSS fields don't count some parts of a process including
500 the page tables, kernel stack, struct thread_info, and struct
501 task_struct. This is usually at least 20 KiB of memory that is always
502 resident. SIZE is the virtual size of the process (code+data+stack).
503 Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies")
505 that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly.
506 These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process
507 exits.
508 If the length of the username is greater than the width of the display
510 column, the username will be truncated. See the -o and -O formatting
511 options to customize length.
512 Commands options such as ps -aux are not recommended as it is a
514 confusion of two different standards. According to the POSIX and UNIX
515 standards, the above command asks to display all processes with a TTY
516 (generally the commands users are running) plus all processes owned by
517 a user named x. If that user doesn't exist, then ps will assume you
518 really meant ps aux.
519
521 The sum of these values is displayed in the "F" column, which is
522 provided by the flags output specifier:
523 1 forked but didn't exec
525 4 used super-user privileges
526
528 Here are the different values that the s, stat and state output
529 specifiers (header "STAT" or "S") will display to describe the state of
530 a process:
531 D uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)
533 I Idle kernel thread
534 R running or runnable (on run queue)
535 S interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)
536 T stopped by job control signal
537 t stopped by debugger during the tracing
538 W paging (not valid since the 2.6.xx kernel)
539 X dead (should never be seen)
540 Z defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by
541 its parent
542 For BSD formats and when the stat keyword is used, additional
544 characters may be displayed:
545 < high-priority (not nice to other users)
547 N low-priority (nice to other users)
548 L has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom IO)
549 s is a session leader
550 l is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL pthreads
551 do)
552 + is in the foreground process group
553
555 These keys are used by the BSD O option (when it is used for sorting).
556 The GNU --sort option doesn't use these keys, but the specifiers
557 described below in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. Note that
558 the values used in sorting are the internal values ps uses and not the
559 "cooked" values used in some of the output format fields (e.g. sorting
560 on tty will sort into device number, not according to the terminal name
561 displayed). Pipe ps output into the sort(1) command if you want to
562 sort the cooked values.
563 KEY LONG DESCRIPTION
565 c cmd simple name of executable
566 C pcpu cpu utilization
567 f flags flags as in long format F field
568 g pgrp process group ID
569 G tpgid controlling tty process group ID
570 j cutime cumulative user time
571 J cstime cumulative system time
572 k utime user time
573 m min_flt number of minor page faults
574 M maj_flt number of major page faults
575 n cmin_flt cumulative minor page faults
576 N cmaj_flt cumulative major page faults
577 o session session ID
578 p pid process ID
579 P ppid parent process ID
580 r rss resident set size
581 R resident resident pages
582 s size memory size in kilobytes
583 S share amount of shared pages
584 t tty the device number of the controlling tty
585 T start_time time process was started
586 U uid user ID number
587 u user user name
588 v vsize total VM size in KiB
589 y priority kernel scheduling priority
590
592 This ps supports AIX format descriptors, which work somewhat like the
593 formatting codes of printf(1) and printf(3). For example, the normal
594 default output can be produced with this: ps -eo "%p %y %x %c". The
595 NORMAL codes are described in the next section.
596 CODE NORMAL HEADER
598 %C pcpu %CPU
599 %G group GROUP
600 %P ppid PPID
601 %U user USER
602 %a args COMMAND
603 %c comm COMMAND
604 %g rgroup RGROUP
605 %n nice NI
606 %p pid PID
607 %r pgid PGID
608 %t etime ELAPSED
609 %u ruser RUSER
610 %x time TIME
611 %y tty TTY
612 %z vsz VSZ
613
615 Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the output
616 format (e.g. with option -o) or to sort the selected processes with the
617 GNU-style --sort option.
618 For example: ps -eo pid,user,args --sort user
620 This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used in
622 other implementations of ps.
623 The following user-defined format specifiers may contain spaces:
625 args, cmd, comm, command, fname, ucmd, ucomm, lstart, bsdstart, start.
626 Some keywords may not be available for sorting.
628 CODE HEADER DESCRIPTION
631 %cpu %CPU cpu utilization of the process in "##.#" format.
633 Currently, it is the CPU time used divided by the
634 time the process has been running
635 (cputime/realtime ratio), expressed as a
636 percentage. It will not add up to 100% unless
637 you are lucky. (alias pcpu).
638 %mem %MEM ratio of the process's resident set size to the
640 physical memory on the machine, expressed as a
641 percentage. (alias pmem).
642 ag_id AGID The autogroup identifier associated with a
644 process which operates in conjunction with the
645 CFS scheduler to improve interactive desktop
646 performance.
647 ag_nice AGNI The autogroup nice value which affects scheduling
649 of all processes in that group.
650 args COMMAND command with all its arguments as a string.
652 Modifications to the arguments may be shown. The
653 output in this column may contain spaces. A
654 process marked <defunct> is partly dead, waiting
655 to be fully destroyed by its parent. Sometimes
656 the process args will be unavailable; when this
657 happens, ps will instead print the executable
658 name in brackets. (alias cmd, command). See
659 also the comm format keyword, the -f option, and
660 the c option.
661 When specified last, this column will extend to
662 the edge of the display. If ps can not determine
663 display width, as when output is redirected
664 (piped) into a file or another command, the
665 output width is undefined (it may be 80,
666 unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and
667 so on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
668 --cols option may be used to exactly determine
669 the width in this case. The w or -w option may
670 be also be used to adjust width.
671 blocked BLOCKED mask of the blocked signals, see signal(7).
673 According to the width of the field, a 32 or
674 64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
675 (alias sig_block, sigmask).
676 bsdstart START time the command started. If the process was
678 started less than 24 hours ago, the output format
679 is " HH:MM", else it is " Mmm:SS" (where Mmm is
680 the three letters of the month). See also
681 lstart, start, start_time, and stime.
682 bsdtime TIME accumulated cpu time, user + system. The display
684 format is usually "MMM:SS", but can be shifted to
685 the right if the process used more than 999
686 minutes of cpu time.
687 c C processor utilization. Currently, this is the
690 integer value of the percent usage over the
691 lifetime of the process. (see %cpu).
692 caught CAUGHT mask of the caught signals, see signal(7).
694 According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
695 bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
696 (alias sig_catch, sigcatch).
697 cgname CGNAME display name of control groups to which the
699 process belongs.
700 cgroup CGROUP display control groups to which the process
702 belongs.
703 cgroupns CGROUPNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
705 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
706 class CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
708 policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
709 - not reported
711 TS SCHED_OTHER
712 FF SCHED_FIFO
713 RR SCHED_RR
714 B SCHED_BATCH
715 ISO SCHED_ISO
716 IDL SCHED_IDLE
717 DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
718 ? unknown value
719 cls CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
721 policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
722 - not reported
724 TS SCHED_OTHER
725 FF SCHED_FIFO
726 RR SCHED_RR
727 B SCHED_BATCH
728 ISO SCHED_ISO
729 IDL SCHED_IDLE
730 DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
731 ? unknown value
732 cmd CMD see args. (alias args, command).
734 comm COMMAND command name (only the executable name). The
736 output in this column may contain spaces. (alias
737 ucmd, ucomm). See also the args format keyword,
738 the -f option, and the c option.
739 When specified last, this column will extend to
740 the edge of the display. If ps can not determine
741 display width, as when output is redirected
742 (piped) into a file or another command, the
743 output width is undefined (it may be 80,
744 unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and
745 so on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
746 --cols option may be used to exactly determine
747 the width in this case. The w or -w option may
748 be also be used to adjust width.
749 command COMMAND See args. (alias args, command).
751 cp CP per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage. (see
753 %cpu).
754 cputime TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]hh:mm:ss" format.
756 (alias time).
757 cputimes TIME cumulative CPU time in seconds (alias times).
759 cuc %CUC The CPU utilization of a process, including dead
762 children, in an extended "##.###" format. (see
763 also %cpu, c, cp, cuu, pcpu).
764 cuu %CUU The CPU utilization of a process in an extended
766 "##.###" format. (see also %cpu, c, cp, cuc,
767 pcpu).
768 drs DRS data resident set size, the amount of private
770 memory reserved by a process. It is also known
771 as DATA. Such memory may not yet be mapped to rss
772 but will always be included included in the vsz
773 amount.
774 egid EGID effective group ID number of the process as a
777 decimal integer. (alias gid).
778 egroup EGROUP effective group ID of the process. This will be
780 the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and
781 the field width permits, or a decimal
782 representation otherwise. (alias group).
783 eip EIP instruction pointer. As of kernel 4.9.xx will be
785 zeroed out unless task is exiting or being core
786 dumped.
787 esp ESP stack pointer. As of kernel 4.9.xx will be zeroed
789 out unless task is exiting or being core dumped.
790 etime ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started, in
792 the form [[DD-]hh:]mm:ss.
793 etimes ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started, in
795 seconds.
796 euid EUID effective user ID (alias uid).
798 euser EUSER effective user name. This will be the textual
800 user ID, if it can be obtained and the field
801 width permits, or a decimal representation
802 otherwise. The n option can be used to force the
803 decimal representation. (alias uname, user).
804 exe EXE path to the executable. Useful if path cannot be
806 printed via cmd, comm or args format options.
807 f F flags associated with the process, see the
809 PROCESS FLAGS section. (alias flag, flags).
810 fgid FGID filesystem access group ID. (alias fsgid).
812 fgroup FGROUP filesystem access group ID. This will be the
814 textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the
815 field width permits, or a decimal representation
816 otherwise. (alias fsgroup).
817 flag F see f. (alias f, flags).
819 flags F see f. (alias f, flag).
821 fname COMMAND first 8 bytes of the base name of the process's
823 executable file. The output in this column may
824 contain spaces.
825 fuid FUID filesystem access user ID. (alias fsuid).
827 fuser FUSER filesystem access user ID. This will be the
829 textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the
830 field width permits, or a decimal representation
831 otherwise.
832 gid GID see egid. (alias egid).
835 group GROUP see egroup. (alias egroup).
837 ignored IGNORED mask of the ignored signals, see signal(7).
839 According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
840 bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
841 (alias sig_ignore, sigignore).
842 ipcns IPCNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
844 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
845 label LABEL security label, most commonly used for SELinux
847 context data. This is for the Mandatory Access
848 Control ("MAC") found on high-security systems.
849 lstart STARTED time the command started. This will be in the
851 form "DDD mmm HH:MM:SS YYY" unless changed by the
852 -D option.
853 lsession SESSION displays the login session identifier of a
855 process, if systemd support has been included.
856 luid LUID displays Login ID associated with a process.
858 lwp LWP light weight process (thread) ID of the
860 dispatchable entity (alias spid, tid). See tid
861 for additional information.
862 lxc LXC The name of the lxc container within which a task
864 is running. If a process is not running inside a
865 container, a dash ('-') will be shown.
866 machine MACHINE displays the machine name for processes assigned
868 to VM or container, if systemd support has been
869 included.
870 maj_flt MAJFLT The number of major page faults that have
872 occurred with this process.
873 min_flt MINFLT The number of minor page faults that have
875 occurred with this process.
876 mntns MNTNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
878 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
879 netns NETNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
881 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
882 ni NI nice value. This ranges from 19 (nicest) to -20
884 (not nice to others), see nice(1). (alias nice).
885 nice NI see ni.(alias ni).
887 nlwp NLWP number of lwps (threads) in the process. (alias
889 thcount).
890 numa NUMA The node associated with the most recently used
892 processor. A -1 means that NUMA information is
893 unavailable.
894 nwchan WCHAN address of the kernel function where the process
896 is sleeping (use wchan if you want the kernel
897 function name).
898 oom OOM Out of Memory Score. The value, ranging from 0 to
900 +1000, used to select task(s) to kill when memory
901 is exhausted.
902 oomadj OOMADJ Out of Memory Adjustment Factor. The value is
906 added to the current out of memory score which is
907 then used to determine which task to kill when
908 memory is exhausted.
909 ouid OWNER displays the Unix user identifier of the owner of
911 the session of a process, if systemd support has
912 been included.
913 pcpu %CPU see %cpu. (alias %cpu).
915 pending PENDING mask of the pending signals. See signal(7).
917 Signals pending on the process are distinct from
918 signals pending on individual threads. Use the m
919 option or the -m option to see both. According
920 to the width of the field, a 32 or 64 bits mask
921 in hexadecimal format is displayed. (alias sig).
922 pgid PGID process group ID or, equivalently, the process ID
924 of the process group leader. (alias pgrp).
925 pgrp PGRP see pgid. (alias pgid).
927 pid PID a number representing the process ID (alias
929 tgid).
930 pidns PIDNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
932 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
933 pmem %MEM see %mem. (alias %mem).
935 policy POL scheduling class of the process. (alias
937 class, cls). Possible values are:
938 - not reported
940 TS SCHED_OTHER
941 FF SCHED_FIFO
942 RR SCHED_RR
943 B SCHED_BATCH
944 ISO SCHED_ISO
945 IDL SCHED_IDLE
946 DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
947 ? unknown value
948 ppid PPID parent process ID.
950 pri PRI priority of the process. Higher number means
952 higher priority.
953 psr PSR processor that process last executed on.
955 pss PSS Proportional share size, the non-swapped physical
957 memory, with shared memory proportionally
958 accounted to all tasks mapping it.
959 rbytes RBYTES Number of bytes which this process really did
961 cause to be fetched from the storage layer.
962 rchars RCHARS Number of bytes which this task has caused to be
964 read from storage.
965 rgid RGID real group ID.
967 rgroup RGROUP real group name. This will be the textual group
969 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
970 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
971 rops ROPS Number of read I/O operations—that is, system
973 calls such as read(2) and pread(2).
974 rss RSS resident set size, the non-swapped physical
978 memory that a task has used (in kiloBytes).
979 (alias rssize, rsz).
980 rssize RSS see rss. (alias rss, rsz).
982 rsz RSZ see rss. (alias rss, rssize).
984 rtprio RTPRIO realtime priority.
986 ruid RUID real user ID.
988 ruser RUSER real user ID. This will be the textual user ID,
990 if it can be obtained and the field width
991 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
992 s S minimal state display (one character). See
994 section PROCESS STATE CODES for the different
995 values. See also stat if you want additional
996 information displayed. (alias state).
997 sched SCH scheduling policy of the process. The policies
999 SCHED_OTHER (SCHED_NORMAL), SCHED_FIFO, SCHED_RR,
1000 SCHED_BATCH, SCHED_ISO, SCHED_IDLE and
1001 SCHED_DEADLINE are respectively displayed as 0,
1002 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
1003 seat SEAT displays the identifier associated with all
1005 hardware devices assigned to a specific
1006 workplace, if systemd support has been included.
1007 sess SESS session ID or, equivalently, the process ID of
1009 the session leader. (alias session, sid).
1010 sgi_p P processor that the process is currently executing
1012 on. Displays "*" if the process is not currently
1013 running or runnable.
1014 sgid SGID saved group ID. (alias svgid).
1016 sgroup SGROUP saved group name. This will be the textual group
1018 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
1019 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
1020 sid SID see sess. (alias sess, session).
1022 sig PENDING see pending. (alias pending, sig_pend).
1024 sigcatch CAUGHT see caught. (alias caught, sig_catch).
1026 sigignore IGNORED see ignored. (alias ignored, sig_ignore).
1028 sigmask BLOCKED see blocked. (alias blocked, sig_block).
1030 size SIZE approximate amount of swap space that would be
1032 required if the process were to dirty all
1033 writable pages and then be swapped out. This
1034 number is very rough!
1035 slice SLICE displays the slice unit which a process belongs
1037 to, if systemd support has been included.
1038 spid SPID see lwp. (alias lwp, tid).
1040 stackp STACKP address of the bottom (start) of stack for the
1042 process.
1043 start STARTED time the command started. If the process was
1050 started less than 24 hours ago, the output format
1051 is "HH:MM:SS", else it is " Mmm dd" (where Mmm
1052 is a three-letter month name). See also
1053 lstart, bsdstart, start_time, and stime.
1054 start_time START starting time or date of the process. Only the
1056 year will be displayed if the process was not
1057 started the same year ps was invoked, or "MmmDD"
1058 if it was not started the same day, or "HH:MM"
1059 otherwise. See also bsdstart, start, lstart,
1060 and stime.
1061 stat STAT multi-character process state. See section
1063 PROCESS STATE CODES for the different values
1064 meaning. See also s and state if you just want
1065 the first character displayed.
1066 state S see s. (alias s).
1068 stime STIME see start_time. (alias start_time).
1070 suid SUID saved user ID. (alias svuid).
1072 supgid SUPGID group ids of supplementary groups, if any. See
1074 getgroups(2).
1075 supgrp SUPGRP group names of supplementary groups, if any. See
1077 getgroups(2).
1078 suser SUSER saved user name. This will be the textual user
1080 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
1081 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
1082 (alias svuser).
1083 svgid SVGID see sgid. (alias sgid).
1085 svuid SVUID see suid. (alias suid).
1087 sz SZ size in physical pages of the core image of the
1089 process. This includes text, data, and stack
1090 space. Device mappings are currently excluded;
1091 this is subject to change. See vsz and rss.
1092 tgid TGID a number representing the thread group to which a
1094 task belongs (alias pid). It is the process ID
1095 of the thread group leader.
1096 thcount THCNT see nlwp. (alias nlwp). number of kernel
1098 threads owned by the process.
1099 tid TID the unique number representing a dispatchable
1101 entity (alias lwp, spid). This value may also
1102 appear as: a process ID (pid); a process group ID
1103 (pgrp); a session ID for the session leader
1104 (sid); a thread group ID for the thread group
1105 leader (tgid); and a tty process group ID for the
1106 process group leader (tpgid).
1107 time TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]HH:MM:SS" format.
1109 (alias cputime).
1110 timens TIMENS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
1112 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
1113 times TIME cumulative CPU time in seconds (alias cputimes).
1115 tname TTY controlling tty (terminal). (alias tt, tty).
1117 tpgid TPGID ID of the foreground process group on the tty
1122 (terminal) that the process is connected to, or
1123 -1 if the process is not connected to a tty.
1124 trs TRS text resident set size, the amount of physical
1126 memory devoted to executable code.
1127 tt TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tty).
1129 tty TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tt).
1131 ucmd CMD see comm. (alias comm, ucomm).
1133 ucomm COMMAND see comm. (alias comm, ucmd).
1135 uid UID see euid. (alias euid).
1137 uname USER see euser. (alias euser, user).
1139 unit UNIT displays unit which a process belongs to, if
1141 systemd support has been included.
1142 user USER see euser. (alias euser, uname).
1144 userns USERNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
1146 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
1147 uss USS Unique set size, the non-swapped physical memory,
1149 which is not shared with an another task.
1150 utsns UTSNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
1152 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
1153 uunit UUNIT displays user unit which a process belongs to, if
1155 systemd support has been included.
1156 vsize VSZ see vsz. (alias vsz).
1158 vsz VSZ virtual memory size of the process in KiB
1160 (1024-byte units). Device mappings are currently
1161 excluded; this is subject to change. (alias
1162 vsize).
1163 wbytes WBYTES Number of bytes which this process caused to be
1165 sent to the storage layer.
1166 wcbytes WCBYTES Number of cancelled write bytes.
1168 wchan WCHAN name of the kernel function in which the process
1170 is sleeping.
1171 wchars WCHARS Number of bytes which this task has caused, or
1173 shall cause to be written to disk.
1174 wops WOPS Number of write I/O operations—that is, system
1176 calls such as write(2) and pwrite(2).
1177
1180 The following environment variables could affect ps:
1181 COLUMNS
1183 Override default display width.
1184 LINES
1186 Override default display height.
1187 PS_PERSONALITY
1189 Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital... (see section
1190 PERSONALITY below).
1191 CMD_ENV
1193 Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital... (see section
1194 PERSONALITY below).
1195 I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS
1197 Force obsolete command line interpretation.
1198 LC_TIME
1200 Date format.
1201 LIBPROC_HIDE_KERNEL
1203 Set this to any value to hide kernel threads normally displayed with
1204 the -e option. This is equivalent to selecting --ppid 2 -p 2
1205 --deselect instead. Also works in BSD mode.
1206 PS_COLORS
1208 Not currently supported.
1209 PS_FORMAT
1211 Default output format override. You may set this to a format string
1212 of the type used for the -o option. The DefSysV and DefBSD values
1213 are particularly useful.
1214 POSIXLY_CORRECT
1216 Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
1217 POSIX2
1219 When set to "on", acts as POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1220 UNIX95
1222 Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
1223 _XPG
1225 Cancel CMD_ENV=irix non-standard behavior.
1226 In general, it is a bad idea to set these variables. The one exception
1228 is CMD_ENV or PS_PERSONALITY, which could be set to Linux for normal
1229 systems. Without that setting, ps follows the useless and bad parts of
1230 the Unix98 standard.
1231
1233 390 like the OS/390 OpenEdition ps
1234 aix like AIX ps
1235 bsd like FreeBSD ps (totally non-standard)
1236 compaq like Digital Unix ps
1237 debian like the old Debian ps
1238 digital like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
1239 gnu like the old Debian ps
1240 hp like HP-UX ps
1241 hpux like HP-UX ps
1242 irix like Irix ps
1243 linux ***** recommended *****
1244 old like the original Linux ps (totally non-standard)
1245 os390 like OS/390 Open Edition ps
1246 posix standard
1247 s390 like OS/390 Open Edition ps
1248 sco like SCO ps
1249 sgi like Irix ps
1250 solaris2 like Solaris 2+ (SunOS 5) ps
1251 sunos4 like SunOS 4 (Solaris 1) ps (totally non-standard)
1252 svr4 standard
1253 sysv standard
1254 tru64 like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
1255 unix standard
1256 unix95 standard
1257 unix98 standard
1258
1260 The fields bsdstart and start will only show the abbreviated month name
1261 in English. The fields lstart and stime will show the abbreviated month
1262 name in the configured locale but may exceed the column width due to
1263 the different lengths for abbreviated month and day names across
1264 languages.
1265
1267 pgrep(1), pstree(1), top(1), strftime(3), proc(5).
1268
1270 This ps conforms to:
1271 1 Version 2 of the Single Unix Specification
1273 2 The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 6
1274 3 IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
1275 4 X/Open System Interfaces Extension [UP XSI]
1276 5 ISO/IEC 9945:2003
1277
1279 ps was originally written by Branko Lankester ⟨lankeste@fwi.uva.nl⟩.
1280 Michael K. Johnson ⟨johnsonm@redhat.com⟩ re-wrote it significantly to
1281 use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the process. Michael
1282 Shields ⟨mjshield@nyx.cs.du.edu⟩ added the pid-list feature. Charles
1283 Blake ⟨cblake@bbn.com⟩ added multi-level sorting, the dirent-style li‐
1284 brary, the device name-to-number mmaped database, the approximate bi‐
1285 nary search directly on System.map, and many code and documentation
1286 cleanups. David Mossberger-Tang wrote the generic BFD support for
1287 psupdate. Albert Cahalan ⟨albert@users.sf.net⟩ rewrote ps for full
1288 Unix98 and BSD support, along with some ugly hacks for obsolete and
1289 foreign syntax.
1290 Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩. No subscription is
1292 required or suggested.
1293procps-ng 2023-01-18 PS(1)