PS(1B) BSD Compatibility Package Commands PS(1B)

NAME

ps - display the status of current processes

SYNOPSIS

/usr/ucb/ps [-aceglnrSuUvwx] [-t term] [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(4I)) 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 controlling
terminals. When you specify both -a and -x, you get processes owned
by anyone, with or without a controlling terminal. The -r option
restricts the list of processes printed to running and runnable
processes.


ps displays in tabular form the process ID, under PID; the
controlling 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 complete.


R
Runnable. Process is on run queue.


Z
Zombie state. Process terminated and parent not waiting.


T
Traced. Process stopped by a signal because parent is tracing
it.

OPTIONS

The following options must all be combined to form the first
argument:

-a
Includes information about processes owned by others.


-c
Displays the command name rather than the command
arguments.


-e
Displays the environment as well as the arguments to the
command.


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


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


-r
Restricts output to running and runnable processes.


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


-t term
Lists 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).


-u
Displays user-oriented output. This includes fields USER,
%CPU, %MEM, SZ, RSS, and START as described below.


-U
Obsolete. This option no longer has any effect. It causes
ps to exit without printing the process listing.


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


-w
Uses a wide output format, that is, 132 columns rather
than 80. If the option letter is repeated, that is, -ww,
this option uses arbitrarily wide output. This information
is used to decide how much of long commands to print.
Note: The wide output option can be viewed only by a
superuser or the user who owns the process.


-x
Includes processes with no controlling terminal.


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.


%CPU
CPU use of the process. This is a decaying average over up
to a minute of previous (real) time.


NI
Process scheduling increment (see getpriority(3C) and
nice(2)).


SIZE
The total size of the process in virtual memory, including
all mapped files and devices, in kilobyte units.


SZ
Same as SIZE.


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
(if blank, the process is running).


%MEM
The ratio of the process's resident set size to the physical
memory on the machine, expressed as a percentage.


F
Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with the
process. These flags are available for historical purposes;
no meaning should be currently ascribed to them.


A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been
waited for by the parent, is marked <defunct>; otherwise, ps tries to
determine the command name and arguments given when the process was
created by examining the user block.

FILES

/dev/tty*

/etc/passwd
UID information supplier

SEE ALSO

kill(1), ps(1), nice(2), getpriority(3C), termio(4I), proc(5),
attributes(7), whodo(8)

NOTES

Things can change while ps is running. The picture ps gives is only a
close approximation to the current state. Some data printed for
defunct processes is irrelevant.

February 17, 2023 PS(1B)