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PS(1)			      Linux Users Manual			PS(1)



NAME
       ps - report a snapshot of the current processes.

SYNOPSIS
       ps [options]



DESCRIPTION
       ps displays information about a selection of the active processes. If
       you want a repetitive update of the selection and the displayed
       information, use top(1) instead.

       This version of ps accepts several kinds of options:
       1   UNIX options, which may be grouped and must be preceded by a dash.
       2   BSD options, which may be grouped and must not be used with a dash.
       3   GNU long options, which are preceded by two dashes.

       Options of different types may be freely mixed, but conflicts can
       appear. There are some synonymous options, which are functionally
       identical, due to the many standards and ps implementations that this
       ps is compatible with.

       Note that "ps -aux" is distinct from "ps aux". The POSIX and UNIX
       standards require that "ps -aux" print all processes owned by a user
       named "x", as well as printing all processes that would be selected by
       the -a option. If the user named "x" does not exist, this ps may
       interpret the command as "ps aux" instead and print a warning. This
       behavior is intended to aid in transitioning old scripts and habits. It
       is fragile, subject to change, and thus should not be relied upon.

       By default, ps selects all processes with the same effective user ID
       (euid=EUID) as the current user and associated with the same terminal
       as the invoker. It displays the process ID (pid=PID), the terminal
       associated with the process (tname=TTY), the cumulated CPU time in
       [dd-]hh:mm:ss format (time=TIME), and the executable name (ucmd=CMD).
       Output is unsorted by default.

       The use of BSD-style options will add process state (stat=STAT) to the
       default display and show the command args (args=COMMAND) instead of the
       executable name. You can override this with the PS_FORMAT environment
       variable. The use of BSD-style options will also change the process
       selection to include processes on other terminals (TTYs) that are owned
       by you; alternately, this may be described as setting the selection to
       be the set of all processes filtered to exclude processes owned by
       other users or not on a terminal. These effects are not considered when
       options are described as being "identical" below, so -M will be
       considered identical to Z and so on.

       Except as described below, process selection options are additive. The
       default selection is discarded, and then the selected processes are
       added to the set of processes to be displayed. A process will thus be
       shown if it meets any of the given selection criteria.


EXAMPLES
       To see every process on the system using standard syntax:
	  ps -e
	  ps -ef
	  ps -eF
	  ps -ely

       To see every process on the system using BSD syntax:
	  ps ax
	  ps axu

       To print a process tree:
	  ps -ejH
	  ps axjf

       To get info about threads:
	  ps -eLf
	  ps axms

       To get security info:
	  ps -eo euser,ruser,suser,fuser,f,comm,label
	  ps axZ
	  ps -eM

       To see every process running as root (real & effective ID) in user
       format:
	  ps -U root -u root u

       To see every process with a user-defined format:
	  ps -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,psr,pcpu,stat,wchan:14,comm
	  ps axo stat,euid,ruid,tty,tpgid,sess,pgrp,ppid,pid,pcpu,comm
	  ps -eopid,tt,user,fname,tmout,f,wchan

       Print only the process IDs of syslogd:
	  ps -C syslogd -o pid=

       Print only the name of PID 42:
	  ps -p 42 -o comm=



SIMPLE PROCESS SELECTION
       -A	       Select all processes. Identical to -e.


       -N	       Select all processes except those that fulfill the
		       specified conditions. (negates the selection) Identical
		       to --deselect.


       T	       Select all processes associated with this terminal.
		       Identical to the t option without any argument.


       -a	       Select all processes except session leaders (see
		       getsid(2)) and processes not associated with a
		       terminal.


       a	       Lift the BSD-style "only yourself" restriction, which
		       is imposed upon the set of all processes when some
		       BSD-style (without "-") options are used or when the ps
		       personality setting is BSD-like. The set of processes
		       selected in this manner is in addition to the set of
		       processes selected by other means. An alternate
		       description is that this option causes ps to list all
		       processes with a terminal (tty), or to list all
		       processes when used together with the x option.


       -d	       Select all processes except session leaders.


       -e	       Select all processes. Identical to -A.


       g	       Really all, even session leaders. This flag is obsolete
		       and may be discontinued in a future release. It is
		       normally implied by the a flag, and is only useful when
		       operating in the sunos4 personality.


       r	       Restrict the selection to only running processes.


       x	       Lift the BSD-style "must have a tty" restriction, which
		       is imposed upon the set of all processes when some
		       BSD-style (without "-") options are used or when the ps
		       personality setting is BSD-like. The set of processes
		       selected in this manner is in addition to the set of
		       processes selected by other means. An alternate
		       description is that this option causes ps to list all
		       processes owned by you (same EUID as ps), or to list
		       all processes when used together with the a option.


       --deselect      Select all processes except those that fulfill the
		       specified conditions. (negates the selection) Identical
		       to -N.



PROCESS SELECTION BY LIST
       These options accept a single argument in the form of a blank-separated
       or comma-separated list. They can be used multiple times.
       For example: ps -p "1 2" -p 3,4


       -C cmdlist      Select by command name.
		       This selects the processes whose executable name is
		       given in cmdlist.


       -G grplist      Select by real group ID (RGID) or name.
		       This selects the processes whose real group name or ID
		       is in the grplist list. The real group ID identifies
		       the group of the user who created the process, see
		       getgid(2).


       U userlist      Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name.
		       This selects the processes whose effective user name or
		       ID is in userlist. The effective user ID describes the
		       user whose file access permissions are used by the
		       process (see geteuid(2)). Identical to -u and --user.


       -U userlist     select by real user ID (RUID) or name.
		       It selects the processes whose real user name or ID is
		       in the userlist list. The real user ID identifies the
		       user who created the process, see getuid(2).


       -g grplist      Select by session OR by effective group name.
		       Selection by session is specified by many standards,
		       but selection by effective group is the logical
		       behavior that several other operating systems use. This
		       ps will select by session when the list is completely
		       numeric (as sessions are). Group ID numbers will work
		       only when some group names are also specified. See the
		       -s and --group options.


       p pidlist       Select by process ID. Identical to -p and --pid.


       -p pidlist      Select by PID.
		       This selects the processes whose process ID numbers
		       appear in pidlist. Identical to p and --pid.


       -s sesslist     Select by session ID.
		       This selects the processes with a session ID specified
		       in sesslist.


       t ttylist       Select by tty. Nearly identical to -t and --tty, but
		       can also be used with an empty ttylist to indicate the
		       terminal associated with ps. Using the T option is
		       considered cleaner than using T with an empty ttylist.


       -t ttylist      Select by tty.
		       This selects the processes associated with the
		       terminals given in ttylist. Terminals (ttys, or screens
		       for text output) can be specified in several forms:
		       /dev/ttyS1, ttyS1, S1. A plain "-" may be used to
		       select processes not attached to any terminal.


       -u userlist     Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name.
		       This selects the processes whose effective user name or
		       ID is in userlist. The effective user ID describes the
		       user whose file access permissions are used by the
		       process (see geteuid(2)). Identical to U and --user.


       --Group grplist Select by real group ID (RGID) or name. Identical to
		       -G.


       --User userlist Select by real user ID (RUID) or name. Identical to -U.


       --group grplist Select by effective group ID (EGID) or name.
		       This selects the processes whose effective group name
		       or ID is in grouplist. The effective group ID describes
		       the group whose file access permissions are used by the
		       process (see geteuid(2)). The -g option is often an
		       alternative to --group.


       --pid pidlist   Select by process ID. Identical to -p and p.


       --ppid pidlist  Select by parent process ID. This selects the processes
		       with a parent process ID in pidlist. That is, it
		       selects processes that are children of those listed in
		       pidlist.


       --sid sesslist  Select by session ID. Identical to -s.


       --tty ttylist   Select by terminal. Identical to -t and t.


       --user userlist Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name. Identical
		       to -u and U.


       -123	       Identical to --sid 123.


       123	       Identical to --pid 123.



OUTPUT FORMAT CONTROL
       These options are used to choose the information displayed by ps. The
       output may differ by personality.



       -F	       extra full format. See the -f option, which -F implies.


       -O format       is like -o, but preloaded with some default columns.
		       Identical to -o pid,format,state,tname,time,command or
		       -o pid,format,tname,time,cmd, see -o below.


       O format        is preloaded o (overloaded).
		       The BSD O option can act like -O (user-defined output
		       format with some common fields predefined) or can be
		       used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
		       determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that
		       the desired behavior is obtained (sorting or
		       formatting), specify the option in some other way (e.g.
		       with -O or --sort). When used as a formatting option,
		       it is identical to -O, with the BSD personality.


       -M	       Add a column of security data. Identical to Z.
		       (for SE Linux)


       X	       Register format.


       Z	       Add a column of security data. Identical to -M.
		       (for SE Linux)


       -c	       Show different scheduler information for the -l option.


       -f	       does full-format listing. This option can be combined
		       with many other UNIX-style options to add additional
		       columns. It also causes the command arguments to be
		       printed. When used with -L, the NLWP (number of
		       threads) and LWP (thread ID) columns will be added. See
		       the c option, the format keyword args, and the format
		       keyword comm.


       j	       BSD job control format.


       -j	       jobs format


       l	       display BSD long format.


       -l	       long format. The -y option is often useful with this.


       o format        specify user-defined format. Identical to -o and
		       --format.


       -o format       user-defined format.
		       format is a single argument in the form of a
		       blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers a
		       way to specify individual output columns. The
		       recognized keywords are described in the STANDARD
		       FORMAT SPECIFIERS section below. Headers may be renamed
		       (ps -o pid,ruser=RealUser -o comm=Command) as desired.
		       If all column headers are empty (ps -o pid= -o comm=)
		       then the header line will not be output. Column width
		       will increase as needed for wide headers; this may be
		       used to widen up columns such as WCHAN
		       (ps -o pid,wchan=WIDE-WCHAN-COLUMN -o comm). Explicit
		       width control (ps opid,wchan:42,cmd) is offered too.
		       The behavior of ps -o pid=X,comm=Y varies with
		       personality; output may be one column named "X,comm=Y"
		       or two columns named "X" and "Y". Use multiple -o
		       options when in doubt. Use the PS_FORMAT environment
		       variable to specify a default as desired; DefSysV and
		       DefBSD are macros that may be used to choose the
		       default UNIX or BSD columns.


       s	       display signal format


       u	       display user-oriented format


       v	       display virtual memory format


       -y	       Do not show flags; show rss in place of addr. This
		       option can only be used with -l.


       --format format user-defined format. Identical to -o and o.


       --context       Display security context format. (for SE Linux)



OUTPUT MODIFIERS
       -H	       show process hierarchy (forest)


       N namelist      Specify namelist file. Identical to -n, see -n above.


       O order	       Sorting order. (overloaded)
		       The BSD O option can act like -O (user-defined output
		       format with some common fields predefined) or can be
		       used to specify sort order. Heuristics are used to
		       determine the behavior of this option. To ensure that
		       the desired behavior is obtained (sorting or
		       formatting), specify the option in some other way (e.g.
		       with -O or --sort).

		       For sorting, obsolete BSD O option syntax is
		       O[+|-]k1[,[+|-]k2[,...]]. It orders the processes
		       listing according to the multilevel sort specified by
		       the sequence of one-letter short keys k1, k2, ...
		       described in the OBSOLETE SORT KEYS section below.
		       The "+" is currently optional, merely re-iterating the
		       default direction on a key, but may help to distinguish
		       an O sort from an O format. The "-" reverses direction
		       only on the key it precedes.


       S	       Sum up some information, such as CPU usage, from dead
		       child processes into their parent. This is useful for
		       examining a system where a parent process repeatedly
		       forks off short-lived children to do work.


       c	       Show the true command name. This is derived from the
		       name of the executable file, rather than from the argv
		       value. Command arguments and any modifications to them
		       (see setproctitle(3)) are thus not shown. This option
		       effectively turns the args format keyword into the comm
		       format keyword; it is useful with the -f format option
		       and with the various BSD-style format options, which
		       all normally display the command arguments. See the -f
		       option, the format keyword args, and the format keyword
		       comm.


       e	       Show the environment after the command.


       f	       ASCII-art process hierarchy (forest)


       h	       No header. (or, one header per screen in the BSD
		       personality)
		       The h option is problematic. Standard BSD ps uses this
		       option to print a header on each page of output, but
		       older Linux ps uses this option to totally disable the
		       header. This version of ps follows the Linux usage of
		       not printing the header unless the BSD personality has
		       been selected, in which case it prints a header on each
		       page of output. Regardless of the current personality,
		       you can use the long options --headers and --no-headers
		       to enable printing headers each page or disable headers
		       entirely, respectively.


       k spec	       specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
		       [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]] Choose a multi-letter key
		       from the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is
		       optional since default direction is increasing
		       numerical or lexicographic order. Identical to --sort.
		       Examples:
		       ps jaxkuid,-ppid,+pid
		       ps axk comm o comm,args
		       ps kstart_time -ef


       -n namelist     set namelist file. Identical to N.
		       The namelist file is needed for a proper WCHAN display,
		       and must match the current Linux kernel exactly for
		       correct output. Without this option, the default search
		       path for the namelist is:

			    $PS_SYSMAP
			    $PS_SYSTEM_MAP
			    /proc/*/wchan
			    /boot/System.map-`uname -r`
			    /boot/System.map
			    /lib/modules/`uname -r`/System.map
			    /usr/src/linux/System.map
			    /System.map


       n	       Numeric output for WCHAN and USER. (including all types
		       of UID and GID)


       -w	       Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.


       w	       Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.


       --cols n        set screen width


       --columns n     set screen width


       --cumulative    include some dead child process data (as a sum with the
		       parent)


       --forest        ASCII art process tree


       --headers       repeat header lines, one per page of output


       --no-headers    print no header line at all


       --lines n       set screen height


       --rows n        set screen height


       --sort spec     specify sorting order. Sorting syntax is
		       [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]] Choose a multi-letter key
		       from the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. The "+" is
		       optional since default direction is increasing
		       numerical or lexicographic order. Identical to k. For
		       example: ps jax --sort=uid,-ppid,+pid


       --width n       set screen width



THREAD DISPLAY
       H	       Show threads as if they were processes

       -L	       Show threads, possibly with LWP and NLWP columns

       -T	       Show threads, possibly with SPID column

       m	       Show threads after processes

       -m	       Show threads after processes



OTHER INFORMATION
       L	       List all format specifiers.

       -V	       Print the procps version.

       V	       Print the procps version.

       --help	       Print a help message.

       --info	       Print debugging info.

       --version       Print the procps version.



NOTES
       This ps works by reading the virtual files in /proc. This ps does not
       need to be setuid kmem or have any privileges to run. Do not give this
       ps any special permissions.

       This ps needs access to namelist data for proper WCHAN display. For
       kernels prior to 2.6, the System.map file must be installed.

       CPU usage is currently expressed as the percentage of time spent
       running during the entire lifetime of a process. This is not ideal,
       and it does not conform to the standards that ps otherwise conforms to.
       CPU usage is unlikely to add up to exactly 100%.

       The SIZE and RSS fields dont count some parts of a process including
       the page tables, kernel stack, struct thread_info, and struct
       task_struct. This is usually at least 20 KiB of memory that is always
       resident. SIZE is the virtual size of the process (code+data+stack).

       Processes marked  are dead processes (so-called "zombies")
       that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly. These
       processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process exits.



PROCESS FLAGS
       The sum of these values is displayed in the "F" column, which is
       provided by the flags output specifier.
       1    forked but didnt exec
       4    used super-user privileges


PROCESS STATE CODES
       Here are the different values that the s, stat and state output
       specifiers (header "STAT" or "S") will display to describe the state of
       a process.
       D    Uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)
       R    Running or runnable (on run queue)
       S    Interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)
       T    Stopped, either by a job control signal or because it is being
	    traced.
       W    paging (not valid since the 2.6.xx kernel)
       X    dead (should never be seen)
       Z    Defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by its
	    parent.

       For BSD formats and when the stat keyword is used, additional
       characters may be displayed:
       <    high-priority (not nice to other users)
       N    low-priority (nice to other users)
       L    has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom IO)
       s    is a session leader
       l    is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL pthreads do)
       +    is in the foreground process group



OBSOLETE SORT KEYS
       These keys are used by the BSD O option (when it is used for sorting).
       The GNU --sort option doesnt use these keys, but the specifiers
       described below in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section. Note that
       the values used in sorting are the internal values ps uses and not the
       "cooked" values used in some of the output format fields (e.g. sorting
       on tty will sort into device number, not according to the terminal name
       displayed). Pipe ps output into the sort(1) command if you want to sort
       the cooked values.


       KEY   LONG	  DESCRIPTION
       c     cmd	  simple name of executable
       C     pcpu	  cpu utilization
       f     flags	  flags as in long format F field
       g     pgrp	  process group ID
       G     tpgid	  controlling tty process group ID
       j     cutime	  cumulative user time
       J     cstime	  cumulative system time
       k     utime	  user time
       m     min_flt	  number of minor page faults
       M     maj_flt	  number of major page faults
       n     cmin_flt	  cumulative minor page faults
       N     cmaj_flt	  cumulative major page faults
       o     session	  session ID
       p     pid	  process ID
       P     ppid	  parent process ID
       r     rss	  resident set size
       R     resident	  resident pages
       s     size	  memory size in kilobytes
       S     share	  amount of shared pages
       t     tty	  the device number of the controlling tty
       T     start_time   time process was started
       U     uid	  user ID number
       u     user	  user name
       v     vsize	  total VM size in kB
       y     priority	  kernel scheduling priority



AIX FORMAT DESCRIPTORS
       This ps supports AIX format descriptors, which work somewhat like the
       formatting codes of printf(1) and printf(3). For example, the normal
       default output can be produced with this:  ps -eo "%p %y %x %c".
       The NORMAL codes are described in the next section.

       CODE   NORMAL   HEADER
       %C     pcpu     %CPU
       %G     group    GROUP
       %P     ppid     PPID
       %U     user     USER
       %a     args     COMMAND
       %c     comm     COMMAND
       %g     rgroup   RGROUP
       %n     nice     NI
       %p     pid      PID
       %r     pgid     PGID
       %t     etime    ELAPSED
       %u     ruser    RUSER
       %x     time     TIME
       %y     tty      TTY
       %z     vsz      VSZ


STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS
       Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the output
       format (e.g. with option -o) or to sort the selected processes with the
       GNU-style --sort option.

       For example:  ps -eo pid,user,args --sort user

       This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used in
       other implementations of ps.

       The following user-defined format specifiers may contain spaces: args,
       cmd, comm, command, fname, ucmd, ucomm, lstart, bsdstart, start.

       Some keywords may not be available for sorting.


       CODE	 HEADER DESCRIPTION

       %cpu	 %CPU	cpu utilization of the process in "##.#" format.
			Currently, it is the CPU time used divided by the time the
			process has been running (cputime/realtime ratio),
			expressed as a percentage. It will not add up to 100%
			unless you are lucky. (alias pcpu).

       %mem	 %MEM	ratio of the processs resident set size  to the physical
			memory on the machine, expressed as a percentage.
			(alias pmem).

       args	 COMMANDcommand with all its arguments as a string. Modifications
			to the arguments may be shown. The output in this column
			may contain spaces. A process marked  is partly
			dead, waiting to be fully destroyed by its parent.
			Sometimes the process args will be unavailable; when this
			happens, ps will instead print the executable name in
			brackets. (alias cmd, command). See also the comm format
			keyword, the -f option, and the c option.
			When specified last, this column will extend to the edge
			of the display. If ps can not determine display width, as
			when output is redirected (piped) into a file or another
			command, the output width is undefined. (it may be 80,
			unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and so on) The
			COLUMNS environment variable or --cols option may be used
			to exactly determine the width in this case. The w or -w
			option may be also be used to adjust width.

       blocked	 BLOCKEDmask of the blocked signals, see signal(7). According to
			the width of the field, a 32-bit or 64-bit mask in
			hexadecimal format is displayed.
			(alias sig_block, sigmask).

       bsdstart  START	time the command started. If the process was started less
			than 24 hours ago, the output format is " HH:MM", else it
			is "mmm dd" (where mmm is the three letters of the month).

       bsdtime	 TIME	accumulated cpu time, user + system. The display format is
			usually "MMM:SS", but can be shifted to the right if the
			process used more than 999 minutes of cpu time.

       c	 C	processor utilization. Currently, this is the integer
			value of the percent usage over the lifetime of the
			process. (see %cpu).

       caught	 CAUGHT mask of the caught signals, see signal(7). According to
			the width of the field, a 32 or 64 bits mask in
			hexadecimal format is displayed.
			(alias sig_catch, sigcatch).

       class	 CLS	scheduling class of the process. (alias policy, cls).
			Fields possible values are:
			-   not reported
			TS  SCHED_OTHER
			FF  SCHED_FIFO
			RR  SCHED_RR
			?   unknown value







       cls	 CLS	scheduling class of the process. (alias policy, class).
			Fields possible values are:
			-   not reported
			TS  SCHED_OTHER
			FF  SCHED_FIFO
			RR  SCHED_RR
			?   unknown value

       cmd	 CMD	see args. (alias args, command).

       comm	 COMMANDcommand name (only the executable name). Modifications to
			the command name will not be shown. A process marked
			 is partly dead, waiting to be fully destroyed by
			its parent. The output in this column may contain spaces.
			(alias ucmd, ucomm). See also the args format keyword, the
			-f option, and the c option.
			When specified last, this column will extend to the edge
			of the display. If ps can not determine display width, as
			when output is redirected (piped) into a file or another
			command, the output width is undefined. (it may be 80,
			unlimited, determined by the TERM variable, and so on) The
			COLUMNS environment variable or --cols option may be used
			to exactly determine the width in this case. The w or -w
			option may be also be used to adjust width.

       command	 COMMANDsee args. (alias args, cmd).

       cp	 CP	per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage. (see %cpu).

       cputime	 TIME	cumulative CPU time, "[dd-]hh:mm:ss" format. (alias time).

       egid	 EGID	effective group ID number of the process as a decimal
			integer. (alias gid).

       egroup	 EGROUP effective group ID of the process. This will be the
			textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the field
			width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
			(alias group).

       eip	 EIP	instruction pointer.

       esp	 ESP	stack pointer.

       etime	 ELAPSEDelapsed time since the process was started, in the
			form [[dd-]hh:]mm:ss.

       euid	 EUID	effective user ID. (alias uid).

       euser	 EUSER	effective user name. This will be the textual user ID,
			if it can be obtained and the field width permits,
			or a decimal representation otherwise. The n option can be
			used to force the decimal representation.
			(alias uname, user).

       f	 F	flags associated with the process, see the PROCESS FLAGS
			section. (alias flag, flags).

       fgid	 FGID	filesystem access group ID. (alias fsgid).

       fgroup	 FGROUP filesystem access group ID. This will be the textual
			user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
			permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
			(alias fsgroup).

       flag	 F	see f. (alias f, flags).

       flags	 F	see f. (alias f, flag).

       fname	 COMMANDfirst 8 bytes of the base name of the processs executable
			file. The output in this column may contain spaces.


       fuid	 FUID	filesystem access user ID. (alias fsuid).

       fuser	 FUSER	filesystem access user ID. This will be the textual
			user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
			permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.

       gid	 GID	see egid. (alias egid).

       group	 GROUP	see egroup. (alias egroup).

       ignored	 IGNOREDmask of the ignored signals, see signal(7). According to
			the width of the field, a 32-bit or 64-bit mask in
			hexadecimal format is displayed. (alias sig_ignore,
			sigignore).

       label	 LABEL	security label, most commonly used for SE Linux context
			data. This is for the Mandatory Access Control ("MAC")
			found on high-security systems.

       lstart	 STARTEDtime the command started.

       lwp	 LWP	lwp (light weight process, or thread) ID of the lwp being
			reported. (alias spid, tid).

       ni	 NI	nice value. This ranges from 19 (nicest) to -20 (not nice
			to others), see nice(1). (alias nice).

       nice	 NI	see ni. (alias ni).

       nlwp	 NLWP	number of lwps (threads) in the process. (alias thcount).

       nwchan	 WCHAN	address of the kernel function where the process is
			sleeping (use wchan if you want the kernel function name).
			Running tasks will display a dash (-) in this column.

       pcpu	 %CPU	see %cpu. (alias %cpu).

       pending	 PENDINGmask of the pending signals. See signal(7). Signals
			pending on the process are distinct from signals pending
			on individual threads. Use the m option or the -m option
			to see both. According to the width of the field, a 32-bit
			or 64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
			(alias sig).

       pgid	 PGID	process group ID or, equivalently, the process ID of the
			process group leader. (alias pgrp).

       pgrp	 PGRP	see pgid. (alias pgid).

       pid	 PID	process ID number of the process.

       pmem	 %MEM	see %mem. (alias %mem).

       policy	 POL	scheduling class of the process. (alias class, cls).
			Possible values are:
			-   not reported
			TS  SCHED_OTHER
			FF  SCHED_FIFO
			RR  SCHED_RR
			?   unknown value

       ppid	 PPID	parent process ID.

       psr	 PSR	processor that process is currently assigned to.

       rgid	 RGID	real group ID.




       rgroup	 RGROUP real group name. This will be the textual group ID, if it
			can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal
			representation otherwise.

       rss	 RSS	resident set size, the non-swapped physical memory that a
			task has used (in kiloBytes). (alias rssize, rsz).

       rssize	 RSS	see rss. (alias rss, rsz).

       rsz	 RSZ	see rss. (alias rss, rssize).

       rtprio	 RTPRIO realtime priority.

       ruid	 RUID	real user ID.

       ruser	 RUSER	real user ID. This will be the textual user ID, if it can
			be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal
			representation otherwise.

       s	 S	minimal state display (one character). See section PROCESS
			STATE CODES for the different values. See also stat if you
			want additional information displayed. (alias state).

       sched	 SCH	scheduling policy of the process. The policies
			sched_other, sched_fifo, and sched_rr are respectively
			displayed as 0, 1, and 2.

       sess	 SESS	session ID or, equivalently, the process ID of the
			session leader. (alias session, sid).

       sgi_p	 P	processor that the process is currently executing on.
			Displays "*" if the process is not currently running or
			runnable.

       sgid	 SGID	saved group ID. (alias svgid).

       sgroup	 SGROUP saved group name. This will be the textual group ID, if it
			can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal
			representation otherwise.

       sid	 SID	see sess. (alias sess, session).

       sig	 PENDINGsee pending. (alias pending, sig_pend).

       sigcatch  CAUGHT see caught. (alias caught, sig_catch).

       sigignore IGNOREDsee ignored. (alias ignored, sig_ignore).

       sigmask	 BLOCKEDsee blocked. (alias blocked, sig_block).

       size	 SZ	approximate amount of swap space that would be required if
			the process were to dirty all writable pages and then be
			swapped out. This number is very rough!

       spid	 SPID	see lwp. (alias lwp, tid).

       stackp	 STACKP address of the bottom (start) of stack for the process.

       start	 STARTEDtime the command started. If the process was started less
			than 24 hours ago, the output format is "HH:MM:SS", else
			it is "  mmm dd" (where mmm is a three-letter month name).

       start_timeSTART	starting time or date of the process. Only the year will
			be displayed if the process was not started the same year
			ps was invoked, or "mmmdd" if it was not started the same
			day, or "HH:MM" otherwise.

       stat	 STAT	multi-character process state. See section PROCESS STATE
			CODES for the different values meaning. See also s and
			state if you just want the first character displayed.


       state	 S	see s. (alias s).

       suid	 SUID	saved user ID. (alias svuid).

       suser	 SUSER	saved user name. This will be the textual user ID, if it
			can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal
			representation otherwise. (alias svuser).

       svgid	 SVGID	see sgid. (alias sgid).

       svuid	 SVUID	see suid. (alias suid).

       sz	 SZ	size in physical pages of the core image of the process.
			This includes text, data, and stack space. Device mappings
			are currently excluded; this is subject to change. See vsz
			and rss.

       thcount	 THCNT	see nlwp. (alias nlwp). number of kernel threads owned by
			the process.

       tid	 TID	see lwp. (alias lwp).

       time	 TIME	cumulative CPU time, "[dd-]hh:mm:ss" format.
			(alias cputime).

       tname	 TTY	controlling tty (terminal). (alias tt, tty).

       tpgid	 TPGID	ID of the foreground process group on the tty (terminal)
			that the process is connected to, or -1 if the process is
			not connected to a tty.

       tt	 TT	controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tty).

       tty	 TT	controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname, tt).

       ucmd	 CMD	see comm. (alias comm, ucomm).

       ucomm	 COMMANDsee comm. (alias comm, ucmd).

       uid	 UID	see euid. (alias euid).

       uname	 USER	see euser. (alias euser, user).

       user	 USER	see euser. (alias euser, uname).

       vsize	 VSZ	see vsz. (alias vsz).

       vsz	 VSZ	virtual memory size of the process in KiB
			(1024-byte units). Device mappings are currently excluded;
			this is subject to change. (alias vsize).

       wchan	 WCHAN	name of the kernel function in which the process is
			sleeping, a "-" if the process is running, or a "*" if the
			process is multi-threaded and ps is not displaying
			threads.



ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables could affect ps:

       COLUMNS
	  Override default display width.

       LINES
	  Override default display height.

       PS_PERSONALITY
	  Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital...
	  (see section PERSONALITY below).

       CMD_ENV
	  Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital...
	  (see section PERSONALITY below).

       I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS
	  Force obsolete command line interpretation.

       LC_TIME
	  Date format.

       PS_COLORS
	  Not currently supported.

       PS_FORMAT
	  Default output format override. You may set this to a format string
	  of the type used for the -o option. The DefSysV and DefBSD values
	  are particularly useful.

       PS_SYSMAP
	  Default namelist (System.map) location.

       PS_SYSTEM_MAP
	  Default namelist (System.map) location.

       POSIXLY_CORRECT
	  Dont find excuses to ignore bad "features".

       POSIX2
	  When set to "on", acts as POSIXLY_CORRECT.

       UNIX95
	  Dont find excuses to ignore bad "features".

       _XPG
	  Cancel CMD_ENV=irix non-standard behavior.

       In general, it is a bad idea to set these variables. The one exception
       is CMD_ENV or PS_PERSONALITY, which could be set to Linux for normal
       systems. Without that setting, ps follows the useless and bad parts of
       the Unix98 standard.



PERSONALITY
       390	  like the S/390 OpenEdition ps
       aix	  like AIX ps
       bsd	  like FreeBSD ps (totally non-standard)
       compaq	  like Digital Unix ps
       debian	  like the old Debian ps
       digital	  like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
       gnu	  like the old Debian ps
       hp	  like HP-UX ps
       hpux	  like HP-UX ps
       irix	  like Irix ps
       linux	  ***** RECOMMENDED *****
       old	  like the original Linux ps (totally non-standard)
       os390	  like OS/390 Open Edition ps
       posix	  standard
       s390	  like OS/390 Open Edition ps
       sco	  like SCO ps
       sgi	  like Irix ps
       solaris2   like Solaris 2+ (SunOS 5) ps
       sunos4	  like SunOS 4 (Solaris 1) ps (totally non-standard)
       svr4	  standard
       sysv	  standard
       tru64	  like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
       unix	  standard
       unix95	  standard
       unix98	  standard



SEE ALSO
       top(1), pgrep(1), pstree(1), proc(5).



STANDARDS
       This ps conforms to:

       1   Version 2 of the Single Unix Specification
       2   The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 6
       3   IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
       4   X/Open System Interfaces Extension [UP XSI]
       5   ISO/IEC 9945:2003


AUTHOR
       ps was originally written by Branko Lankester .
       Michael K. Johnson  re-wrote it significantly to
       use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the process. Michael
       Shields  added the pid-list feature. Charles
       Blake  added multi-level sorting, the dirent-style
       library, the device name-to-number mmaped database, the approximate
       binary search directly on System.map, and many code and documentation
       cleanups. David Mossberger-Tang wrote the generic BFD support for
       psupdate. Albert Cahalan  rewrote ps for full
       Unix98 and BSD support, along with some ugly hacks for obsolete and
       foreign syntax.

       Please send bug reports to .
       No subscription is required or suggested.



Linux				 July 28, 2004				 PS(1)




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