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(1) 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.
154 -G grplist
156 Select by real group ID (RGID) or name. This selects the
157 processes whose real group name or ID is in the grplist list.
158 The real group ID identifies the group of the user who created
159 the process, see getgid(2).
160 -g grplist
162 Select by session OR by effective group name. Selection by
163 session is specified by many standards, but selection by
164 effective group is the logical behavior that several other
165 operating systems use. This ps will select by session when the
166 list is completely numeric (as sessions are). Group ID numbers
167 will work only when some group names are also specified. See
168 the -s and --group options.
169 --Group grplist
171 Select by real group ID (RGID) or name. Identical to -G.
172 --group grplist
174 Select by effective group ID (EGID) or name. This selects the
175 processes whose effective group name or ID is in grplist. The
176 effective group ID describes the group whose file access
177 permissions are used by the process (see getegid(2)). The -g
178 option is often an alternative to --group.
179 p pidlist
181 Select by process ID. Identical to -p and --pid.
182 -p pidlist
184 Select by PID. This selects the processes whose process ID
185 numbers appear in pidlist. Identical to p and --pid.
186 --pid pidlist
188 Select by process ID. Identical to -p and p.
189 --ppid pidlist
191 Select by parent process ID. This selects the processes with a
192 parent process ID in pidlist. That is, it selects processes
193 that are children of those listed in pidlist.
194 q pidlist
196 Select by process ID (quick mode). Identical to -q and
197 --quick-pid.
198 -q pidlist
200 Select by PID (quick mode). This selects the processes whose
201 process ID numbers appear in pidlist. With this option ps reads
202 the necessary info only for the pids listed in the pidlist and
203 doesn't apply additional filtering rules. The order of pids is
204 unsorted and preserved. No additional selection options, sorting
205 and forest type listings are allowed in this mode. Identical to
206 q and --quick-pid.
207 --quick-pid pidlist
209 Select by process ID (quick mode). Identical to -q and q.
210 -s sesslist
212 Select by session ID. This selects the processes with a session
213 ID specified in sesslist.
214 --sid sesslist
216 Select by session ID. Identical to -s.
217 t ttylist
219 Select by tty. Nearly identical to -t and --tty, but can also
220 be used with an empty ttylist to indicate the terminal
221 associated with ps. Using the T option is considered cleaner
222 than using t with an empty ttylist.
223 -t ttylist
225 Select by tty. This selects the processes associated with the
226 terminals given in ttylist. Terminals (ttys, or screens for
227 text output) can be specified in several forms: /dev/ttyS1,
228 ttyS1, S1. A plain "-" may be used to select processes not
229 attached to any terminal.
230 --tty ttylist
232 Select by terminal. Identical to -t and t.
233 U userlist
235 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. This selects the
236 processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist. The
237 effective user ID describes the user whose file access
238 permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)). Identical
239 to -u and --user.
240 -U userlist
242 Select by real user ID (RUID) or name. It selects the processes
243 whose real user name or ID is in the userlist list. The real
244 user ID identifies the user who created the process, see
245 getuid(2).
246 -u userlist
248 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. This selects the
249 processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist.
250 The effective user ID describes the user whose file access
252 permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)). Identical
253 to U and --user.
254 --User userlist
256 Select by real user ID (RUID) or name. Identical to -U.
257 --user userlist
259 Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. Identical to -u and
260 U.
261
263 These options are used to choose the information displayed by ps. The
264 output may differ by personality.
265 -c Show different scheduler information for the -l option.
267 --context
269 Display security context format (for SELinux).
270 -f Do full-format listing. This option can be combined with many
272 other UNIX-style options to add additional columns. It also
273 causes the command arguments to be printed. When used with -L,
274 the NLWP (number of threads) and LWP (thread ID) columns will be
275 added. See the c option, the format keyword args, and the
276 format keyword comm.
277 -F Extra full format. See the -f option, which -F implies.
279 --format format
281 user-defined format. Identical to -o and o.
282 j BSD job control format.
284 -j Jobs format.
286 l Display BSD long format.
288 -l Long format. The -y option is often useful with this.
290 -M Add a column of security data. Identical to Z (for SELinux).
292 O format
294 is preloaded o (overloaded). The BSD O option can act like -O
295 (user-defined output format with some common fields predefined)
296 or can be used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
297 determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that the
298 desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting), specify
299 the option in some other way (e.g. with -O or --sort). When
300 used as a formatting option, it is identical to -O, with the BSD
301 personality.
302 -O format
304 Like -o, but preloaded with some default columns. Identical to
305 -o pid,format,state,tname,time,command or -o pid,format,tname,
306 time,cmd, see -o below.
307 o format
309 Specify user-defined format. Identical to -o and --format.
310 -o format
312 User-defined format. format is a single argument in the form of
313 a blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers a way to
314 specify individual output columns. The recognized keywords are
315 described in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section below.
316 Headers may be renamed (ps -o pid,ruser=RealUser -o
317 comm=Command) as desired. If all column headers are empty (ps
318 -o pid= -o comm=) then the header line will not be output.
319 Column width will increase as needed for wide headers; this may
320 be used to widen up columns such as WCHAN (ps -o pid,wchan=WIDE-
321 WCHAN-COLUMN -o comm). Explicit width control (ps opid,
322 wchan:42,cmd) is offered too. The behavior of ps -o pid=X,
323 comm=Y varies with personality; output may be one column named
324 "X,comm=Y" or two columns named "X" and "Y". Use multiple -o
325 options when in doubt. Use the PS_FORMAT environment variable
326 to specify a default as desired; DefSysV and DefBSD are macros
327 that may be used to choose the default UNIX or BSD columns.
328 s Display signal format.
330 u Display user-oriented format.
332 v Display virtual memory format.
334 X Register format.
336 -y Do not show flags; show rss in place of addr. This option can
338 only be used with -l.
339 Z Add a column of security data. Identical to -M (for SELinux).
341
343 c Show the true command name. This is derived from the name of
344 the executable file, rather than from the argv value. Command
345 arguments and any modifications to them are thus not shown.
346 This option effectively turns the args format keyword into the
347 comm format keyword; it is useful with the -f format option and
348 with the various BSD-style format options, which all normally
349 display the command arguments. See the -f option, the format
350 keyword args, and the format keyword comm.
351 --cols n
353 Set screen width.
354 --columns n
356 Set screen width.
357 --cumulative
359 Include some dead child process data (as a sum with the parent).
360 e Show the environment after the command.
362 f ASCII art process hierarchy (forest).
364 --forest
366 ASCII art process tree.
367 h No header. (or, one header per screen in the BSD personality).
369 The h option is problematic. Standard BSD ps uses this option
370 to print a header on each page of output, but older Linux ps
371 uses this option to totally disable the header. This version of
372 ps follows the Linux usage of not printing the header unless the
373 BSD personality has been selected, in which case it prints a
374 header on each page of output. Regardless of the current
375 personality, you can use the long options --headers and
376 --no-headers to enable printing headers each page or disable
377 headers entirely, respectively.
378 -H Show process hierarchy (forest).
380 --headers
382 Repeat header lines, one per page of output.
383 k spec Specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
385 [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]. Choose a multi-letter key from the
386 STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is optional since
387 default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
388 order. Identical to --sort.
389 Examples:
391 ps jaxkuid,-ppid,+pid
392 ps axk comm o comm,args
393 ps kstart_time -ef
394 --lines n
396 Set screen height.
397 -n namelist
399 Set namelist file. Identical to N. The namelist file is needed
400 for a proper WCHAN display, and must match the current Linux
401 kernel exactly for correct output. Without this option, the
402 default search path for the namelist is:
403 $PS_SYSMAP
405 $PS_SYSTEM_MAP
406 /proc/*/wchan
407 /boot/System.map-$(uname -r)
408 /boot/System.map
409 /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/System.map
410 /usr/src/linux/System.map
411 /System.map
412 n Numeric output for WCHAN and USER (including all types of UID
414 and GID).
415 N namelist
417 Specify namelist file. Identical to -n, see -n above.
418 --no-headers
420 Print no header line at all. --no-heading is an alias for this
421 option.
422 O order
424 Sorting order (overloaded). The BSD O option can act like -O
425 (user-defined output format with some common fields predefined)
426 or can be used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
427 determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that the
428 desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting), specify
429 the option in some other way (e.g. with -O or --sort).
430 For sorting, obsolete BSD O option syntax is
432 O[+|-]k1[,[+|-]k2[,...]]. It orders the processes listing
433 according to the multilevel sort specified by the sequence of
434 one-letter short keys k1,k2, ... described in the OBSOLETE SORT
435 KEYS section below. The "+" is currently optional, merely
436 re-iterating the default direction on a key, but may help to
437 distinguish an O sort from an O format. The "-" reverses
438 direction only on the key it precedes.
439 --rows n
441 Set screen height.
442 S Sum up some information, such as CPU usage, from dead child
444 processes into their parent. This is useful for examining a
445 system where a parent process repeatedly forks off short-lived
446 children to do work.
447 --sort spec
449 Specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
450 [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]. Choose a multi-letter key from the
451 STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is optional since
452 default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
453 order. Identical to k. For example: ps jax --sort=uid,-ppid,
454 +pid
455 w Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
457 -w Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.
459 --width n
461 Set screen width.
462
464 H Show threads as if they were processes.
465 -L Show threads, possibly with LWP and NLWP columns.
467 m Show threads after processes.
469 -m Show threads after processes.
471 -T Show threads, possibly with SPID column.
473
475 --help section
476 Print a help message. The section argument can be one of
477 simple, list, output, threads, misc or all. The argument can be
478 shortened to one of the underlined letters as in: s|l|o|t|m|a.
479 --info Print debugging info.
481 L List all format specifiers.
483 V Print the procps-ng version.
485 -V Print the procps-ng version.
487 --version
489 Print the procps-ng version.
490
492 This ps works by reading the virtual files in /proc. This ps does not
493 need to be setuid kmem or have any privileges to run. Do not give this
494 ps any special permissions.
495 This ps needs access to namelist data for proper WCHAN display. For
497 kernels prior to 2.6, the System.map file must be installed.
498 CPU usage is currently expressed as the percentage of time spent
500 running during the entire lifetime of a process. This is not ideal,
501 and it does not conform to the standards that ps otherwise conforms to.
502 CPU usage is unlikely to add up to exactly 100%.
503 The SIZE and RSS fields don't count some parts of a process including
505 the page tables, kernel stack, struct thread_info, and struct
506 task_struct. This is usually at least 20 KiB of memory that is always
507 resident. SIZE is the virtual size of the process (code+data+stack).
508 Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies")
510 that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly.
511 These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process
512 exits.
513 If the length of the username is greater than the length of the display
515 column, the numeric user ID is displayed instead.
516 Commands options such as ps -aux are not recommended as it is a
518 confusion of two different standards. According to the POSIX and UNIX
519 standards, the above command asks to display all processes with a TTY
520 (generally the commands users are running) plus all processes owned by
521 a user named "x". If that user doesn't exist, then ps will assume you
522 really meant "ps aux".
523
525 The sum of these values is displayed in the "F" column, which is
526 provided by the flags output specifier:
527 1 forked but didn't exec
529 4 used super-user privileges
530
532 Here are the different values that the s, stat and state output
533 specifiers (header "STAT" or "S") will display to describe the state of
534 a process:
535 D uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)
537 R running or runnable (on run queue)
538 S interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)
539 T stopped by job control signal
540 t stopped by debugger during the tracing
541 W paging (not valid since the 2.6.xx kernel)
542 X dead (should never be seen)
543 Z defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by
544 its parent
545 For BSD formats and when the stat keyword is used, additional
547 characters may be displayed:
548 < high-priority (not nice to other users)
550 N low-priority (nice to other users)
551 L has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom IO)
552 s is a session leader
553 l is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL pthreads
554 do)
555 + is in the foreground process group
556
558 These keys are used by the BSD O option (when it is used for sorting).
559 The GNU --sort option doesn't use these keys, but the specifiers
560 described below in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. Note that
561 the values used in sorting are the internal values ps uses and not the
562 "cooked" values used in some of the output format fields (e.g. sorting
563 on tty will sort into device number, not according to the terminal name
564 displayed). Pipe ps output into the sort(1) command if you want to
565 sort the cooked values.
566 KEY LONG DESCRIPTION
568 c cmd simple name of executable
569 C pcpu cpu utilization
570 f flags flags as in long format F field
571 g pgrp process group ID
572 G tpgid controlling tty process group ID
573 j cutime cumulative user time
574 J cstime cumulative system time
575 k utime user time
576 m min_flt number of minor page faults
577 M maj_flt number of major page faults
578 n cmin_flt cumulative minor page faults
579 N cmaj_flt cumulative major page faults
580 o session session ID
581 p pid process ID
582 P ppid parent process ID
583 r rss resident set size
584 R resident resident pages
585 s size memory size in kilobytes
586 S share amount of shared pages
587 t tty the device number of the controlling tty
588 T start_time time process was started
589 U uid user ID number
590 u user user name
591 v vsize total VM size in KiB
592 y priority kernel scheduling priority
593
595 This ps supports AIX format descriptors, which work somewhat like the
596 formatting codes of printf(1) and printf(3). For example, the normal
597 default output can be produced with this: ps -eo "%p %y %x %c". The
598 NORMAL codes are described in the next section.
599 CODE NORMAL HEADER
601 %C pcpu %CPU
602 %G group GROUP
603 %P ppid PPID
604 %U user USER
605 %a args COMMAND
606 %c comm COMMAND
607 %g rgroup RGROUP
608 %n nice NI
609 %p pid PID
610 %r pgid PGID
611 %t etime ELAPSED
612 %u ruser RUSER
613 %x time TIME
614 %y tty TTY
615 %z vsz VSZ
617
619 Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the output
620 format (e.g. with option -o) or to sort the selected processes with the
621 GNU-style --sort option.
622 For example: ps -eo pid,user,args --sort user
624 This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used in
626 other implementations of ps.
627 The following user-defined format specifiers may contain spaces:
629 args, cmd, comm, command, fname, ucmd, ucomm, lstart, bsdstart, start.
630 Some keywords may not be available for sorting.
632 CODE HEADER DESCRIPTION
635 %cpu %CPU cpu utilization of the process in "##.#" format.
637 Currently, it is the CPU time used divided by the
638 time the process has been running
639 (cputime/realtime ratio), expressed as a
640 percentage. It will not add up to 100% unless
641 you are lucky. (alias pcpu).
642 %mem %MEM ratio of the process's resident set size to the
644 physical memory on the machine, expressed as a
645 percentage. (alias pmem).
646 args COMMAND command with all its arguments as a string.
648 Modifications to the arguments may be shown. The
649 output in this column may contain spaces. A
650 process marked <defunct> is partly dead, waiting
651 to be fully destroyed by its parent. Sometimes
652 the process args will be unavailable; when this
653 happens, ps will instead print the executable
654 name in brackets. (alias cmd, command). See
655 also the comm format keyword, the -f option, and
656 the c option.
657 When specified last, this column will extend to
658 the edge of the display. If ps can not determine
659 display width, as when output is redirected
660 (piped) into a file or another command, the
661 output width is undefined (it may be 80,
662 unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and
663 so on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
664 --cols option may be used to exactly determine
665 the width in this case. The w or -w option may
666 be also be used to adjust width.
667 blocked BLOCKED mask of the blocked signals, see signal(7).
669 According to the width of the field, a 32 or
670 64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
671 (alias sig_block, sigmask).
672 bsdstart START time the command started. If the process was
674 started less than 24 hours ago, the output format
675 is " HH:MM", else it is " Mmm:SS" (where Mmm is
676 the three letters of the month). See also
677 lstart, start, start_time, and stime.
678 bsdtime TIME accumulated cpu time, user + system. The display
680 format is usually "MMM:SS", but can be shifted to
681 the right if the process used more than 999
682 minutes of cpu time.
683 c C processor utilization. Currently, this is the
686 integer value of the percent usage over the
687 lifetime of the process. (see %cpu).
688 caught CAUGHT mask of the caught signals, see signal(7).
690 According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
691 bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
692 (alias sig_catch, sigcatch).
693 cgroup CGROUP display control groups to which the process
695 belongs.
696 class CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
698 policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
699 - not reported
701 TS SCHED_OTHER
702 FF SCHED_FIFO
703 RR SCHED_RR
704 B SCHED_BATCH
705 ISO SCHED_ISO
706 IDL SCHED_IDLE
707 ? unknown value
708 cls CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
710 policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
711 - not reported
713 TS SCHED_OTHER
714 FF SCHED_FIFO
715 RR SCHED_RR
716 B SCHED_BATCH
717 ISO SCHED_ISO
718 IDL SCHED_IDLE
719 ? unknown value
720 cmd CMD see args. (alias args, command).
722 comm COMMAND command name (only the executable name).
724 Modifications to the command name will not be
725 shown. A process marked <defunct> is partly
726 dead, waiting to be fully destroyed by its
727 parent. The output in this column may contain
728 spaces. (alias ucmd, ucomm). See also the args
729 format keyword, the -f option, and the c option.
730 When specified last, this column will extend to
731 the edge of the display. If ps can not determine
732 display width, as when output is redirected
733 (piped) into a file or another command, the
734 output width is undefined (it may be 80,
735 unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and
736 so on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
737 --cols option may be used to exactly determine
738 the width in this case. The w or -w option may
739 be also be used to adjust width.
740 command COMMAND See args. (alias args, command).
742 cp CP per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage. (see
744 %cpu).
745 cputime TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]hh:mm:ss" format.
747 (alias time).
748 drs DRS data resident set size, the amount of physical
750 memory devoted to other than executable code.
751 egid EGID effective group ID number of the process as a
755 decimal integer. (alias gid).
756 egroup EGROUP effective group ID of the process. This will be
758 the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and
759 the field width permits, or a decimal
760 representation otherwise. (alias group).
761 eip EIP instruction pointer.
763 esp ESP stack pointer.
765 etime ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started, in
767 the form [[DD-]hh:]mm:ss.
768 etimes ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started, in
770 seconds.
771 euid EUID effective user ID (alias uid).
773 euser EUSER effective user name. This will be the textual
775 user ID, if it can be obtained and the field
776 width permits, or a decimal representation
777 otherwise. The n option can be used to force the
778 decimal representation. (alias uname, user).
779 f F flags associated with the process, see the
781 PROCESS FLAGS section. (alias flag, flags).
782 fgid FGID filesystem access group ID. (alias fsgid).
784 fgroup FGROUP filesystem access group ID. This will be the
786 textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the
787 field width permits, or a decimal representation
788 otherwise. (alias fsgroup).
789 flag F see f. (alias f, flags).
791 flags F see f. (alias f, flag).
793 fname COMMAND first 8 bytes of the base name of the process's
795 executable file. The output in this column may
796 contain spaces.
797 fuid FUID filesystem access user ID. (alias fsuid).
799 fuser FUSER filesystem access user ID. This will be the
801 textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the
802 field width permits, or a decimal representation
803 otherwise.
804 gid GID see egid. (alias egid).
806 group GROUP see egroup. (alias egroup).
808 ignored IGNORED mask of the ignored signals, see signal(7).
810 According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
811 bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
812 (alias sig_ignore, sigignore).
813 ipcns IPCNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
815 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
816 label LABEL security label, most commonly used for SELinux
818 context data. This is for the Mandatory Access
819 Control ("MAC") found on high-security systems.
820 lstart STARTED time the command started. See also
824 bsdstart, start, start_time, and stime.
825 lsession SESSION displays the login session identifier of a
827 process, if systemd support has been included.
828 luid LUID displays Login ID associated with a process.
830 lwp LWP light weight process (thread) ID of the
832 dispatchable entity (alias spid, tid). See tid
833 for additional information.
834 machine MACHINE displays the machine name for processes assigned
836 to VM or container, if systemd support has been
837 included.
838 maj_flt MAJFLT The number of major page faults that have
840 occurred with this process.
841 min_flt MINFLT The number of minor page faults that have
843 occurred with this process.
844 mntns MNTNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
846 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
847 netns NETNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
849 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
850 ni NI nice value. This ranges from 19 (nicest) to -20
852 (not nice to others), see nice(1). (alias nice).
853 nice NI see ni.(alias ni).
855 nlwp NLWP number of lwps (threads) in the process. (alias
857 thcount).
858 nwchan WCHAN address of the kernel function where the process
860 is sleeping (use wchan if you want the kernel
861 function name). Running tasks will display a
862 dash ('-') in this column.
863 ouid OWNER displays the Unix user identifier of the owner of
865 the session of a process, if systemd support has
866 been included.
867 pcpu %CPU see %cpu. (alias %cpu).
869 pending PENDING mask of the pending signals. See signal(7).
871 Signals pending on the process are distinct from
872 signals pending on individual threads. Use the m
873 option or the -m option to see both. According
874 to the width of the field, a 32 or 64 bits mask
875 in hexadecimal format is displayed. (alias sig).
876 pgid PGID process group ID or, equivalently, the process ID
878 of the process group leader. (alias pgrp).
879 pgrp PGRP see pgid. (alias pgid).
881 pid PID a number representing the process ID (alias
883 tgid).
884 pidns PIDNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
886 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
887 pmem %MEM see %mem. (alias %mem).
889 policy POL scheduling class of the process. (alias
893 class, cls). Possible values are:
894 - not reported
896 TS SCHED_OTHER
897 FF SCHED_FIFO
898 RR SCHED_RR
899 B SCHED_BATCH
900 ISO SCHED_ISO
901 IDL SCHED_IDLE
902 ? unknown value
903 ppid PPID parent process ID.
905 pri PRI priority of the process. Higher number means
907 lower priority.
908 psr PSR processor that process is currently assigned to.
910 rgid RGID real group ID.
912 rgroup RGROUP real group name. This will be the textual group
914 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
915 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
916 rss RSS resident set size, the non-swapped physical
918 memory that a task has used (in kiloBytes).
919 (alias rssize, rsz).
920 rssize RSS see rss. (alias rss, rsz).
922 rsz RSZ see rss. (alias rss, rssize).
924 rtprio RTPRIO realtime priority.
926 ruid RUID real user ID.
928 ruser RUSER real user ID. This will be the textual user ID,
930 if it can be obtained and the field width
931 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
932 s S minimal state display (one character). See
934 section PROCESS STATE CODES for the different
935 values. See also stat if you want additional
936 information displayed. (alias state).
937 sched SCH scheduling policy of the process. The policies
939 SCHED_OTHER (SCHED_NORMAL), SCHED_FIFO, SCHED_RR,
940 SCHED_BATCH, SCHED_ISO, and SCHED_IDLE are
941 respectively displayed as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
942 seat SEAT displays the identifier associated with all
944 hardware devices assigned to a specific
945 workplace, if systemd support has been included.
946 sess SESS session ID or, equivalently, the process ID of
948 the session leader. (alias session, sid).
949 sgi_p P processor that the process is currently executing
951 on. Displays "*" if the process is not currently
952 running or runnable.
953 sgid SGID saved group ID. (alias svgid).
955 sgroup SGROUP saved group name. This will be the textual group
957 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
958 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
959 sid SID see sess. (alias sess, session).
962 sig PENDING see pending. (alias pending, sig_pend).
964 sigcatch CAUGHT see caught. (alias caught, sig_catch).
966 sigignore IGNORED see ignored. (alias ignored, sig_ignore).
968 sigmask BLOCKED see blocked. (alias blocked, sig_block).
970 size SIZE approximate amount of swap space that would be
972 required if the process were to dirty all
973 writable pages and then be swapped out. This
974 number is very rough!
975 slice SLICE displays the slice unit which a process belongs
977 to, if systemd support has been included.
978 spid SPID see lwp. (alias lwp, tid).
980 stackp STACKP address of the bottom (start) of stack for the
982 process.
983 start STARTED time the command started. If the process was
985 started less than 24 hours ago, the output format
986 is "HH:MM:SS", else it is " Mmm dd" (where Mmm
987 is a three-letter month name). See also
988 lstart, bsdstart, start_time, and stime.
989 start_time START starting time or date of the process. Only the
991 year will be displayed if the process was not
992 started the same year ps was invoked, or "MmmDD"
993 if it was not started the same day, or "HH:MM"
994 otherwise. See also bsdstart, start, lstart,
995 and stime.
996 stat STAT multi-character process state. See section
998 PROCESS STATE CODES for the different values
999 meaning. See also s and state if you just want
1000 the first character displayed.
1001 state S see s. (alias s).
1003 suid SUID saved user ID. (alias svuid).
1005 supgid SUPGID group ids of supplementary groups, if any. See
1007 getgroups(2).
1008 supgrp SUPGRP group names of supplementary groups, if any. See
1010 getgroups(2).
1011 suser SUSER saved user name. This will be the textual user
1013 ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
1014 permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
1015 (alias svuser).
1016 svgid SVGID see sgid. (alias sgid).
1018 svuid SVUID see suid. (alias suid).
1020 sz SZ size in physical pages of the core image of the
1022 process. This includes text, data, and stack
1023 space. Device mappings are currently excluded;
1024 this is subject to change. See vsz and rss.
1025 tgid TGID a number representing the thread group to which a
1027 task belongs (alias pid). It is the process ID
1028 of the thread group leader.
1029 thcgr THCGR display control groups to which the thread
1032 belongs.
1033 thcount THCNT see nlwp. (alias nlwp). number of kernel
1035 threads owned by the process.
1036 tid TID the unique number representing a dispatchable
1038 entity (alias lwp, spid). This value may also
1039 appear as: a process ID (pid); a process group ID
1040 (pgrp); a session ID for the session leader
1041 (sid); a thread group ID for the thread group
1042 leader (tgid); and a tty process group ID for the
1043 process group leader (tpgid).
1044 time TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]HH:MM:SS" format.
1046 (alias cputime).
1047 tname TTY controlling tty (terminal). (alias tt, tty).
1049 tpgid TPGID ID of the foreground process group on the tty
1051 (terminal) that the process is connected to, or
1052 -1 if the process is not connected to a tty.
1053 trs TRS text resident set size, the amount of physical
1055 memory devoted to executable code.
1056 tt TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tty).
1058 tty TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tt).
1060 ucmd CMD see comm. (alias comm, ucomm).
1062 ucomm COMMAND see comm. (alias comm, ucmd).
1064 uid UID see euid. (alias euid).
1066 uname USER see euser. (alias euser, user).
1068 unit UNIT displays unit which a process belongs to, if
1070 systemd support has been included.
1071 user USER see euser. (alias euser, uname).
1073 userns USERNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
1075 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
1076 utsns UTSNS Unique inode number describing the namespace the
1078 process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
1079 uunit UUNIT displays user unit which a process belongs to, if
1081 systemd support has been included.
1082 vsize VSZ see vsz. (alias vsz).
1084 vsz VSZ virtual memory size of the process in KiB
1086 (1024-byte units). Device mappings are currently
1087 excluded; this is subject to change. (alias
1088 vsize).
1089 wchan WCHAN name of the kernel function in which the process
1091 is sleeping, a "-" if the process is running, or
1092 a "*" if the process is multi-threaded and ps is
1093 not displaying threads.
1094
1097 The following environment variables could affect ps:
1098 COLUMNS
1100 Override default display width.
1101 LINES
1103 Override default display height.
1104 PS_PERSONALITY
1106 Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital... (see section
1107 PERSONALITY below).
1108 CMD_ENV
1110 Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital... (see section
1111 PERSONALITY below).
1112 I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS
1114 Force obsolete command line interpretation.
1115 LC_TIME
1117 Date format.
1118 PS_COLORS
1120 Not currently supported.
1121 PS_FORMAT
1123 Default output format override. You may set this to a format string
1124 of the type used for the -o option. The DefSysV and DefBSD values
1125 are particularly useful.
1126 PS_SYSMAP
1128 Default namelist (System.map) location.
1129 PS_SYSTEM_MAP
1131 Default namelist (System.map) location.
1132 POSIXLY_CORRECT
1134 Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
1135 POSIX2
1137 When set to "on", acts as POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1138 UNIX95
1140 Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
1141 _XPG
1143 Cancel CMD_ENV=irix non-standard behavior.
1144 In general, it is a bad idea to set these variables. The one exception
1146 is CMD_ENV or PS_PERSONALITY, which could be set to Linux for normal
1147 systems. Without that setting, ps follows the useless and bad parts of
1148 the Unix98 standard.
1149
1151 390 like the OS/390 OpenEdition ps
1152 aix like AIX ps
1153 bsd like FreeBSD ps (totally non-standard)
1154 compaq like Digital Unix ps
1155 debian like the old Debian ps
1156 digital like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
1157 gnu like the old Debian ps
1158 hp like HP-UX ps
1159 hpux like HP-UX ps
1160 irix like Irix ps
1161 linux ***** recommended *****
1162 old like the original Linux ps (totally non-standard)
1163 os390 like OS/390 Open Edition ps
1164 posix standard
1165 s390 like OS/390 Open Edition ps
1166 sco like SCO ps
1167 sgi like Irix ps
1169 solaris2 like Solaris 2+ (SunOS 5) ps
1170 sunos4 like SunOS 4 (Solaris 1) ps (totally non-standard)
1171 svr4 standard
1172 sysv standard
1173 tru64 like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
1174 unix standard
1175 unix95 standard
1176 unix98 standard
1177
1179 pgrep(1), pstree(1), top(1), proc(5).
1180
1182 This ps conforms to:
1183 1 Version 2 of the Single Unix Specification
1185 2 The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 6
1186 3 IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
1187 4 X/Open System Interfaces Extension [UP XSI]
1188 5 ISO/IEC 9945:2003
1189
1191 ps was originally written by Branko Lankester ⟨lankeste@fwi.uva.nl⟩.
1192 Michael K. Johnson ⟨johnsonm@redhat.com⟩ re-wrote it significantly to
1193 use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the process. Michael
1194 Shields ⟨mjshield@nyx.cs.du.edu⟩ added the pid-list feature. Charles
1195 Blake ⟨cblake@bbn.com⟩ added multi-level sorting, the dirent-style
1196 library, the device name-to-number mmaped database, the approximate
1197 binary search directly on System.map, and many code and documentation
1198 cleanups. David Mossberger-Tang wrote the generic BFD support for
1199 psupdate. Albert Cahalan ⟨albert@users.sf.net⟩ rewrote ps for full
1200 Unix98 and BSD support, along with some ugly hacks for obsolete and
1201 foreign syntax.
1202 Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩. No subscription is
1204 required or suggested.
1205procps-ng July 2014 PS(1)