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32 .\" @(#)ps.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/ps/ps.1,v 1.24.2.7 2002/06/20 22:43:33 charnier Exp $
34 .\" $DragonFly: src/bin/ps/ps.1,v 1.16 2007/03/23 10:11:54 swildner Exp $
44 .Op Fl aCcefhjlmrSTuvwx
58 displays a header line followed by lines containing information about your
59 processes that have controlling terminals.
60 This information is sorted by controlling terminal, then by process ID.
62 The information displayed is selected based on a set of keywords (see the
68 The default output format includes, for each process, the process' ID,
69 controlling terminal, CPU time (including both user and system time),
70 state, and associated command.
72 The process file system (see
74 should be mounted when
76 is executed, otherwise not all information will be available.
78 The options are as follows:
79 .Bl -tag -width indent
81 Display information about other users' processes as well as your own.
82 This can be disabled by setting the
83 .Va kern.ps_showallprocs
86 Change the ``command'' column output to just contain the executable name,
87 rather than the full command line.
89 Change the way the CPU percentage is calculated by using a ``raw''
90 CPU calculation that ignores ``resident'' time (this normally has
93 Display the environment as well.
95 Show commandline and environment information about swapped out processes.
96 This option is honored only if the uid of the user is 0.
98 Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee one
99 header per page of information.
101 Print information associated with the following keywords:
102 .Cm user , pid , ppid , pgid , sess , jobc , state , tt , time ,
106 List the set of available keywords.
108 Display information associated with the following keywords:
109 .Cm uid , pid , ppid , cpu , pri , nice , vsz , rss , wchan , state ,
114 Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core
115 instead of the default
118 Sort by memory usage, instead of by process ID.
120 Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default
123 Add the information associated with the space or comma separated list
124 of keywords specified, after the process ID,
125 in the default information
127 Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
128 This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
131 Display information associated with the space or comma separated list
132 of keywords specified.
133 Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
134 This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
137 Display information associated with the specified process ID.
139 Sort by current CPU usage, instead of by process ID.
141 Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all exited
142 children to their parent process.
144 Display information about processes attached to the device associated
145 with the standard input.
147 Display information about processes attached to the specified terminal
150 Display the processes belonging to the specified
153 Display information associated with the following keywords:
154 .Cm user , pid, %cpu , %mem , vsz , rss , tt , state , start , time ,
163 Display information associated with the following keywords:
164 .Cm pid , state , time , sl , re , pagein , vsz , rss , lim , tsiz ,
174 Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default which
178 option is specified more than once,
180 will use as many columns as necessary without regard for your window size.
182 Display information about processes without controlling terminals.
185 A complete list of the available keywords are listed below.
186 Some of these keywords are further specified as follows:
187 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm lstart"
189 The CPU utilization of the process; this is a decaying average over up to
190 a minute of previous (real) time.
191 Since the time base over which this is computed varies (since processes may
192 be very young) it is possible for the sum of all
194 fields to exceed 100%.
196 The percentage of real memory used by this process.
198 The flags associated with the process as in
202 The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
205 The exact time the command started, using the ``%c'' format described in
208 The process scheduling increment (see
209 .Xr setpriority 2 ) .
211 the real memory (resident set) size of the process (in 1024 byte units).
213 The time the command started.
214 If the command started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
215 displayed using the ``%l:ps.1p'' format described in
217 If the command started less than 7 days ago, the start time is
218 displayed using the ``%a6.15p'' format.
219 Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the ``%e%b%y'' format.
221 The state is given by a sequence of letters, for example,
223 The first letter indicates the run state of the process:
225 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
227 Marks a process in disk (or other short term, uninterruptible) wait.
229 Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
231 Marks a process which is in
233 The hostname of the prison can be found in
234 .Pa /proc/ Ns Ao Ar pid Ac Ns Pa /status .
236 Marks a runnable process and is followed by the CPU number.
238 Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
240 Marks a stopped process.
242 Marks a dead process (a
246 Additional characters after these, if any, indicate additional state
249 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
251 The process is in the foreground process group of its control terminal.
253 The process has raised CPU scheduling priority.
255 The process has specified a soft limit on memory requirements and is
256 currently exceeding that limit; such a process is (necessarily) not
259 the process has asked for random page replacement
260 .Pf ( Dv MADV_RANDOM ,
265 in a garbage collect).
267 The process is trying to exit.
269 The process has pages locked in core (for example, for raw
272 On SMP systems indicates a process or thread which is
274 holding the MP lock (the Big Giant Lock).
276 The process has reduced CPU scheduling priority (see
277 .Xr setpriority 2 ) .
279 The process has asked for FIFO page replacement
280 .Pf ( Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL ,
283 for example, a large image processing program using virtual memory to
284 sequentially address voluminous data).
286 The process is a session leader.
288 The process is suspended during a
291 The process is swapped out.
293 The process is being traced or debugged.
296 An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling terminal, if any.
297 The abbreviation consists of the three letters following
299 or, for the console, ``con''.
300 This is followed by a ``-'' if the process can no longer reach that
301 controlling terminal (i.e., it has been revoked).
303 The event (an address in the system) on which a process waits.
304 When printed numerically, the initial part of the address is
305 trimmed off and the result is printed in hex, for example, 0x80324000 prints
309 When printing using the
311 keyword, a process that has exited and
312 has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a zombie)
313 is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while trying
314 to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''.
318 makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the
319 process was created by examining memory or the swap area.
320 The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process
321 is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be depended
325 (accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
327 The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
329 Several of them have aliases (keywords which are synonyms).
331 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm sigignore" -compact
333 percentage CPU usage (alias
336 percentage memory usage (alias
339 accounting flag (alias
342 batchness of the process (higher numbers mean less interactivity)
344 command and arguments
346 short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling)
348 the process flags, in hexadecimal (alias
351 total blocks read (alias
362 CPU ID the process was last scheduled on
366 login name of user who started the process (alias
375 total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets)
377 total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets)
382 total involuntary context switches
384 total signals taken (alias
389 total voluntary context switches
391 wait channel (as an address)
393 total blocks written (alias
396 resource usage (valid only for zombie)
409 scheduling priority (lower == better)
411 core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
415 .\" reverse link on run queue, or 0
419 resident set size + (text size / text use count) (alias
422 realtime priority (101 = not a realtime process)
426 user name (from ruid)
430 pending signals (alias
433 caught signals (alias
436 ignored signals (alias
439 blocked signals (alias
442 sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
446 symbolic process state (alias
449 saved gid from a setgid executable
451 saved uid from a setuid executable
453 control terminal device number
455 LWKT thread priority (0-31, 31 highest), and critical section count
457 accumulated CPU time, user + system (alias
460 control terminal process group ID
462 .\"text resident set size (in Kbytes)
464 control terminal session pointer
466 pending thread signals
468 text size (in Kbytes)
470 control terminal name (two letter abbreviation)
472 full name of control terminal
474 name to be used for accounting
480 virtual size in Kbytes (alias
483 wait channel (as a symbolic name)
485 exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie process)
488 .Bl -tag -width /var/db/kvm_kernel.db -compact
490 default kernel memory
491 .It Pa /var/run/dev.db
493 .It Pa /var/db/kvm_kernel.db
494 system namelist database
496 default system namelist
517 cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled
518 process, the information it displays can never be exact.