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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 1.20 2008/09/02 11:50:45 matthias Exp $
44 .Op Fl aCcefHhjlmrRSTuvwx
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 security.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 Print one line per lightweight process (LWP) instead of one line per process.
99 When this option is set and the
101 option is not set, the
103 column is inserted in the output format after the
107 Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee one
108 header per page of information.
110 Print information associated with the following keywords:
111 .Cm user , pid , ppid , pgid , sess , jobc , state , tt , time ,
115 List the set of available keywords.
117 Display information associated with the following keywords:
118 .Cm uid , pid , ppid , cpu , pri , nice , vsz , rss , wchan , state ,
123 Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core
124 instead of the default
127 Sort by memory usage, instead of by process ID.
129 Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default
132 Add the information associated with the space or comma separated list
133 of keywords specified, after the process ID,
134 in the default information
136 Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
137 This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
140 Display information associated with the space or comma separated list
141 of keywords specified.
142 Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
143 This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
146 Display information associated with the specified process ID.
148 Sort by current CPU usage, instead of by process ID.
150 Subsort by parent/child chain. This very useful option makes
151 the parent/child associations clear and understandable.
153 Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all exited
154 children to their parent process.
156 Display information about processes attached to the device associated
157 with the standard input.
159 Display information about processes attached to the specified terminal
162 Display the processes belonging to the specified
165 Display information associated with the following keywords:
166 .Cm user , pid, %cpu , %mem , vsz , rss , tt , state , start , time ,
175 Display information associated with the following keywords:
176 .Cm pid , state , time , sl , re , pagein , vsz , rss , lim , tsiz ,
186 Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default which
190 option is specified more than once,
192 will use as many columns as necessary without regard for your window size.
194 Display information about processes without controlling terminals.
197 A complete list of the available keywords are listed below.
198 Some of these keywords are further specified as follows:
199 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm lstart"
201 The CPU utilization of the process; this is a decaying average over up to
202 a minute of previous (real) time.
203 Since the time base over which this is computed varies (since processes may
204 be very young) it is possible for the sum of all
206 fields to exceed 100%.
208 The percentage of real memory used by this process.
210 The flags associated with the process as in
214 The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
217 The exact time the command started, using the ``%c'' format described in
220 The process scheduling increment (see
221 .Xr setpriority 2 ) .
223 the real memory (resident set) size of the process (in 1024 byte units).
225 The time the command started.
226 If the command started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
227 displayed using the ``%l:ps.1p'' format described in
229 If the command started less than 7 days ago, the start time is
230 displayed using the ``%a6.15p'' format.
231 Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the ``%e%b%y'' format.
233 The state is given by a sequence of letters, for example,
235 The first letter indicates the run state of the process:
237 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
239 Marks a blocked kernel thread.
241 Marks a process in disk (or other short term, uninterruptible) wait.
243 Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
245 Marks a process which is in
247 The hostname of the prison can be found in
248 .Pa /proc/ Ns Ao Ar pid Ac Ns Pa /status .
250 Marks a runnable process and is followed by the CPU number.
252 Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
254 Marks a stopped process.
256 Marks a dead process (a
260 Additional characters after these, if any, indicate additional state
263 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
265 The process is in the foreground process group of its control terminal.
267 The process has raised CPU scheduling priority.
269 The process has specified a soft limit on memory requirements and is
270 currently exceeding that limit; such a process is (necessarily) not
273 the process has asked for random page replacement
274 .Pf ( Dv MADV_RANDOM ,
279 in a garbage collect).
281 The process is trying to exit.
283 The process has pages locked in core (for example, for raw
286 On SMP systems indicates a process or thread which is
288 holding the MP lock (the Big Giant Lock).
290 The process has reduced CPU scheduling priority (see
291 .Xr setpriority 2 ) .
293 The process has asked for FIFO page replacement
294 .Pf ( Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL ,
297 for example, a large image processing program using virtual memory to
298 sequentially address voluminous data).
300 The process is a session leader.
302 The process is suspended during a
305 The process is swapped out.
307 The process is being traced or debugged.
310 An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling terminal, if any.
311 The abbreviation consists of the three letters following
313 or, for the console, ``con''.
314 This is followed by a ``-'' if the process can no longer reach that
315 controlling terminal (i.e., it has been revoked).
317 The event (an address in the system) on which a process waits.
318 When printed numerically, the initial part of the address is
319 trimmed off and the result is printed in hex, for example, 0x80324000 prints
320 as 324000. Note that blocked threads often only have ascii wchan's.
323 When printing using the
325 keyword, a process that has exited and
326 has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a zombie)
327 is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while trying
328 to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''.
332 makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the
333 process was created by examining memory or the swap area.
334 The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process
335 is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be depended
339 (accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
341 The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
343 Several of them have aliases (keywords which are synonyms).
345 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm sigignore" -compact
347 percentage CPU usage (alias
350 percentage memory usage (alias
353 accounting flag (alias
356 batchness of the process (higher numbers mean less interactivity)
358 command and arguments
360 short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling)
362 the process flags, in hexadecimal (alias
365 total blocks read (alias
376 CPU ID the process was last scheduled on
380 login name of user who started the process (alias
389 total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets)
391 total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets)
396 total involuntary context switches
398 number of lightweight processes
400 total signals taken (alias
405 total voluntary context switches
407 wait channel (as an address)
409 total blocks written (alias
412 resource usage (valid only for zombie)
425 scheduling priority (lower == better)
427 core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
431 .\" reverse link on run queue, or 0
435 resident set size + (text size / text use count) (alias
438 realtime priority (101 = not a realtime process)
442 user name (from ruid)
446 pending signals (alias
449 caught signals (alias
452 ignored signals (alias
455 blocked signals (alias
458 sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
462 symbolic process state (alias
465 saved gid from a setgid executable
467 saved uid from a setuid executable
469 control terminal device number
471 LWKT thread priority (0-31, 31 highest), and critical section count
473 thread ID (aka lightweight process ID)
475 accumulated CPU time, user + system (alias
478 control terminal process group ID
480 .\"text resident set size (in Kbytes)
482 control terminal session pointer
484 pending thread signals
486 text size (in Kbytes)
488 control terminal name (two letter abbreviation)
490 full name of control terminal
492 name to be used for accounting (alias
499 virtual size in Kbytes (alias
502 wait channel (as a symbolic name)
504 exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie process)
507 .Bl -tag -width /var/db/kvm_kernel.db -compact
509 default kernel memory
510 .It Pa /var/run/dev.db
512 .It Pa /var/db/kvm_kernel.db
513 system namelist database
515 default system namelist
536 cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled
537 process, the information it displays can never be exact.