1PSTREE(1)                        User Commands                       PSTREE(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       pstree - display a tree of processes
7

SYNOPSIS

9       pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact-not] [-C, --color attr]
10       [-g, --show-pgids] [-h, --highlight-all, -Hpid, --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
16

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.
21
22       pstree visually merges identical branches by  putting  them  in  square
23       brackets and prefixing them with the repetition count, e.g.
24
25           init-+-getty
26                |-getty
27                |-getty
28                `-getty
29
30       becomes
31
32           init---4*[getty]
33
34
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.
37
38           icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]
39
40
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.
44
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.
49
50

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
54              implicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.
55
56       -A     Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.
57
58       -c     Disable  compaction of identical subtrees.  By default, subtrees
59              are compacted whenever possible.
60
61       -C     Color the process name by given attribute. Currently pstree only
62              accepts  age  which colors by process age.  Processes newer than
63              60 seconds are green, newer than an hour yellow and the  remain‐
64              ing red.
65
66       -g     Show  PGIDs.   Process Group IDs are shown as decimal numbers in
67              parentheses after each process  name.   -g  implicitly  disables
68              compaction.   If both PIDs and PGIDs are displayed then PIDs are
69              shown first.
70
71       -G     Use VT100 line drawing characters.
72
73       -h     Highlight the current process and its ancestors.  This is a  no-
74              op  if  the  terminal doesn't support highlighting or if neither
75              the current process nor any of its ancestors are in the  subtree
76              being shown.
77
78       -H     Like  -h,  but  highlight the specified process instead.  Unlike
79              with -h, pstree fails when  using  -H  if  highlighting  is  not
80              available.
81
82       -l     Display  long  lines.  By default, lines are truncated to either
83              the COLUMNS environment variable or the display width.  If  nei‐
84              ther of these methods work, the default of 132 columns is used.
85
86       -n     Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name.
87              (Numeric sort.)
88
89       -N     Show individual trees for each namespace of the type  specified.
90              The available types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts.  Regular
91              users don't have access to other users'  processes  information,
92              so the output will be limited.
93
94       -p     Show  PIDs.   PIDs  are  shown as decimal numbers in parentheses
95              after each process name.  -p implicitly disables compaction.
96
97       -s     Show parent processes of the specified process.
98
99       -S     Show namespaces transitions.  Like -N,  the  output  is  limited
100              when running as a regular user.
101
102       -t     Show full names for threads when available.
103
104       -T     Hide threads and only show processes.
105
106       -u     Show  uid  transitions.   Whenever  the uid of a process differs
107              from the uid of its parent, the new uid is shown in  parentheses
108              after the process name.
109
110       -U     Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters.  Under Linux 1.1-54
111              and above, UTF-8 mode is entered on the  console  with  echo  -e
112              ' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'
113
114       -V     Display version information.
115
116       -Z     (SELinux)  Show  security  context  for each process.  This flag
117              will only work if pstree is compiled with SELinux support.
118

FILES

120       /proc  location of the proc file system
121

BUGS

123       Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.
124

SEE ALSO

126       ps(1), top(1).
127
128
129
130psmisc                            2019-10-23                         PSTREE(1)