NAME

ps - display the status of current processes

SYNOPSIS

/usr/ucb/ps [ -acglnrSuUvwx ] [ -tterm ] [ num ]

DESCRIPTION

The ps command displays information about processes. Normally, only those processes that are running with your effective user ID and are attached to a controlling terminal (see termio(4)) are shown. Additional categories of processes can be added to the display using various options. In particular, the -a option allows you to include processes that are not owned by you (that do not have your user ID), and the -x option allows you to include processes without control terminals. When you specify both -a and -x, you get processes owned by anyone, with or without a control terminal. The -r option restricts the list of processes printed to running and runnable processes. ps displays the process ID, under PID; the control terminal (if any), under TT; the cpu time used by the process so far, including both user and system time, under TIME; the state of the process, under S; and finally, an indication of the COMMAND that is running. The state is given by a single letter from the following:

     O    Process is running on a processor.
     S    Sleeping. Process is waiting for an event to  com-
          plete.
     R    Runnable.  Process is on run queue.
     I    Idle.  Process is being created.
     Z    Zombie state.  Process terminated and  parent  not
          waiting.
     T    Traced. Process stopped by a signal because parent
          is tracing it.
     X    SXBRK state.  Process is waiting for more  primary
          memory.
The following options must all be combined to form the first
argument:

-a Include information about processes owned by others.

-c Display the command name, as stored internally in the system for purposes of accounting, rather than the command arguments, which are kept in the process' address space. This is more reliable, if less informative, since the process is free to destroy the latter information.

-g Display all processes. Without this option, ps only prints interesting processes. Processes are deemed to be uninteresting if they are process group leaders. This normally eliminates top-level command interpreters and processes waiting for users to login on free terminals.

-l   Display a long listing, with fields F, PPID,  CP,  PRI,
     NI, SZ, RSS and WCHAN as described below.

-n Produce numerical output for some fields. In a user listing, the USER field is replaced by a UID field.

-r Restrict output to running and runnable processes.

-S Display accumulated CPU time used by this process and all of its reaped children.

-u Display user-oriented output. This includes fields USER, SZ, RSS and START as described below.

-U Update a private database where ps keeps system information.

-v Display a version of the output containing virtual memory. This includes fields SIZE and RSS, described below.

-w Use a wide output format (132 columns rather than 80); if repeated, that is, -ww, use arbitrarily wide output. This information is used to decide how much of long commands to print.

-x Include processes with no controlling terminal.

-tterm

List only process data associated with the terminal, term. Terminal identifiers may be specified in one of two forms: the device's file name (for example, tty04 or term/14) or, if the device's file name starts with tty, just the digit identifier (for example, 04).

num A process number may be given, in which case the output is restricted to that process. This option must be supplied last.

DISPLAY FORMATS

Fields that are not common to all output formats:

USER        Name of the owner of the process.

NI          Process scheduling increment [see getpriority(3)
            and nice(3C)].

SIZE
SZ          The combined size of the data and stack segments

            (in kilobyte units)

RSS Real memory (resident set) size of the process (in kilobyte units).

UID Numerical user-ID of process owner.

PPID Numerical ID of parent of process.

CP Short-term CPU utilization factor (used in scheduling).

PRI The priority of the process (higher numbers mean lower priority).

START The starting time of the process, given in hours, minutes, and seconds. A process begun more than 24 hours before the ps inquiry is executed is given in months and days.

WCHAN The address of an event for which the process is sleeping, or in SXBRK state (if blank, the process is running).

F           Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with
            the process:
            00   Process has terminated.  Process table  now
                 available.
            01   A system process, always in primary memory.
            02   Parent is tracing process.
            04   Tracing parent's signal  has  stopped  pro-
                 cess.  Parent is waiting, see ptrace(2).
            08   Process is currently in primary memory.
            10   Process currently in primary memory, locked
                 until an event is completed.
A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not  yet
been  waited  for  by the parent is marked <defunct>; other-
wise, ps tries to determine the command name  and  arguments
given  when  the  process  was created by examining the user
block.

FILES

/dev
/dev/sxt/*
/dev/tty*
/dev/xt/*           terminal (tty) names searcher files
/dev/kmem           kernel virtual memory
/dev/swap           default swap device
/dev/mem            memory
/etc/passwd         UID information supplier
/etc/ps_data        internal data structure

SEE ALSO

getpriority(3), nice(3C) kill(1)  in  the  User's  Reference
Manual.
whodo(1) in the System Administrator's Reference Manual.
lseek(2) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.

NOTES

Things can change while ps is running; the picture it gives is only a close approximation to the current state. Some data printed for defunct processes is irrelevant. If no term or num is specified, ps checks the standard input, the standard output, and the standard error in that order, looking for the controlling terminal and will attempt to report on processes associated with the controlling terminal. In this situation, if the standard input, the standard output, and the standard error are all redirected, ps will not find a controlling terminal, so there will be no report. On a heavily loaded system, ps may report an lseek(2) error and exit. ps may seek to an invalid user area address, having obtained the address of process' user area, ps may not be able to seek to that address before the process exits and the address becomes invalid.