1PSTREE(1) User Commands PSTREE(1)
2
6 pstree - display a tree of processes
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9 pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact] [-h, --high‐
10 light-all, -Hpid, --highlight-pid pid] [-g] --show-pgids] [-l, --long]
11 [-n, --numeric-sort] [-N, --ns-sortns [-p, --show-pids]
12 [-s, --show-parents] [-S, --ns-changes] [-u, --uid-changes]
13 [-Z, --security-context] [-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode]
14 [pid, user]
15 pstree -V, --version
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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.
21 pstree visually merges identical branches by putting them in square
23 brackets and prefixing them with the repetition count, e.g.
24 init-+-getty
26 |-getty
27 |-getty
28 `-getty
29 becomes
31 init---4*[getty]
33 Child threads of a process are found under the parent process and are
36 shown with the process name in curly braces, e.g.
37 icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]
39 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.
44 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.
49
52 -a Show command line arguments. If the command line of a process
53 is swapped out, that process is shown in parentheses. -a
54 implicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.
55 -A Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.
57 -c Disable compaction of identical subtrees. By default, subtrees
59 are compacted whenever possible.
60 -G Use VT100 line drawing characters.
62 -h Highlight the current process and its ancestors. This is a no-
64 op if the terminal doesn't support highlighting or if neither
65 the current process nor any of its ancestors are in the subtree
66 being shown.
67 -H Like -h, but highlight the specified process instead. Unlike
69 with -h, pstree fails when using -H if highlighting is not
70 available.
71 -g Show PGIDs. Process Group IDs are shown as decimal numbers in
73 parentheses after each process name. -p implicitly disables
74 compaction. If both PIDs and PGIDs are displayed then PIDs are
75 shown first.
76 -l Display long lines. By default, lines are truncated to the dis‐
78 play width or 132 if output is sent to a non-tty or if the dis‐
79 play width is unknown.
80 -n Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name.
82 (Numeric sort.)
83 -N Show individual trees for each namespace of the type specified.
85 The available types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts. Regular
86 users don't have access to other users' processes information,
87 so the output will be limited.
88 -p Show PIDs. PIDs are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses
90 after each process name. -p implicitly disables compaction.
91 -s Show parent processes of the specified process.
93 -S Show namespaces transitions. Like -N, the output is limited
95 when running as a regular user.
96 -u Show uid transitions. Whenever the uid of a process differs
98 from the uid of its parent, the new uid is shown in parentheses
99 after the process name.
100 -U Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters. Under Linux 1.1-54
102 and above, UTF-8 mode is entered on the console with echo -e
103 ' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'
104 -V Display version information.
106 -Z (SELinux) Show security context for each process. This flag
108 will only work if pstree is compilied with SELinux support.
109
111 /proc location of the proc file system
112
114 Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.
115
117 ps(1), top(1).
118psmisc 2012-07-28 PSTREE(1)