PS(1) OpenBSD Reference Manual PS(1)NAMEps - display process status
SYNOPSISps [-aCcehjkLlmrSTuvwx] [-M core] [-N system] [-O fmt] [-o fmt] [-p pid]
[-t tty] [-U username] [-W swap]
DESCRIPTION
The ps utility displays information about active processes. When given
no options, ps prints information about processes of the current user
that have a controlling terminal.
The information displayed is selected based on a set of keywords (and for
even more control, see the -L, -O, and -o options). The default output
format includes, for each process, the process's ID, controlling
terminal, CPU time (including both user and system time), state, and
associated command.
The options are as follows:
-a Display information about other users' processes as well as your
own.
-C Change the way the CPU percentage is calculated by using a
``raw'' CPU calculation that ignores ``resident'' time (this
normally has no effect).
-c Do not display full command with arguments, but only the
executable name. This may be somewhat confusing; for example,
all sh(1) scripts will show as ``sh''.
-e Display the environment as well.
-h Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee
one header per page of information.
-j Print information associated with the following keywords: user,
pid, ppid, pgid, sess, jobc, state, tt, time, and command.
-k Also display information about kernel threads.
-L List the set of available keywords. This option should not be
specified with other options.
-l Display information associated with the following keywords: uid,
pid, ppid, cpu, pri, nice, vsz, rss, wchan, state, tt, time, and
command.
-M core
Extract values associated with the name list from the specified
core instead of the running kernel.
-m Sort by memory usage, instead of by start time ID.
-N system
Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the
running kernel.
-O fmt Add the information associated with the space or comma separated
list of keywords specified, after the process ID, in the default
information display. Keywords may be appended with an equals
sign (`=') and a string. This causes the printed header to use
the specified string instead of the standard header.
-o fmt Display information associated with the space or comma separated
list of keywords specified. Keywords may be appended with an
equals sign (`=') and a string. This causes the printed header
to use the specified string instead of the standard header.
-p pid Display information associated with the specified process ID.
-r Sort by current CPU usage, instead of by start time ID.
-S Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all
exited children to their parent process.
-T Display information about processes attached to the device
associated with the standard input.
-t tty Display information about processes attached to the specified
terminal device.
-U username
Display the processes belonging to the specified username.
-u Display information associated with the following keywords: user,
pid, %cpu, %mem, vsz, rss, tt, state, start, time, and command.
The -u option implies the -r option.
-v Display information associated with the following keywords: pid,
state, time, sl, re, pagein, vsz, rss, lim, tsiz, %cpu, %mem, and
command. The -v option implies the -m option.
-W swap
When not using the running kernel, extract swap information from
the specified file.
-w Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default,
which is the window size. If the -w option is specified more
than once, ps will use as many columns as necessary without
regard for window size.
-x Display information about processes without controlling
terminals.
KEYWORDS
The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
meanings. Several of them have aliases, which are also noted.
%cpu Alias: pcpu. The CPU utilization of the process; this is
a decaying average over up to a minute of previous (real)
time. Since the time base over which this is computed
varies (since processes may be very young) it is possible
for the sum of all %cpu fields to exceed 100%.
%mem Alias: pmem. The percentage of real memory used by this
process.
acflag Alias: acflg. Accounting flag.
command Alias: args. Command and arguments.
cpu Short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling).
cpuid CPU ID (zero on single processor systems).
dsiz Data size, in Kilobytes.
emul Name of system call emulation environment.
flags Alias: f. The flags (in hexadecimal) associated with the
process as in the include file <sys/proc.h>:
P_CONTROLT 0x0000002 process has a controlling terminal
P_NOCLDSTOP 0x0000008 no SIGCHLD when children stop
P_PPWAIT 0x0000010 parent is waiting for child to
exec/exit
P_PROFIL 0x0000020 process has started profiling
P_SELECT 0x0000040 selecting; wakeup/waiting danger
P_SINTR 0x0000080 sleep is interruptible
P_SUGID 0x0000100 process had set ID privileges since
last exec
P_SYSTEM 0x0000200 system process: no sigs, stats, or
swapping
P_TIMEOUT 0x0000400 timing out during sleep
P_TRACED 0x0000800 process is being traced
P_WAITED 0x0001000 debugging process has waited for child
P_WEXIT 0x0002000 working on exiting
P_EXEC 0x0004000 process called exec(3)
P_OWEUPC 0x0008000 owe process an addupc() call at next
ast
P_SSTEP 0x0020000 process needs single-step fixup
P_SUGIDEXEC 0x0040000 last exec(3) was set[ug]id
P_NOCLDWAIT 0x0080000 let pid 1 wait for my children
P_NOZOMBIE 0x0100000 pid 1 waits for me instead of dad
P_INEXEC 0x0200000 process is doing an exec right now
P_SYSTRACE 0x0400000 process system call tracing is active
gid Effective group.
group Text name of effective group ID.
inblk Alias: inblock. Total blocks read.
jobc Job control count.
ktrace Tracing flags.
ktracep Tracing vnode.
lim The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
setrlimit(2).
logname Alias: login. Login name of user who started the
process.
lstart The exact time the command started, using the ``%c''
format described in strftime(3).
majflt Total page faults.
minflt Total page reclaims.
msgrcv Total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets).
msgsnd Total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets).
nice Alias: ni. The process scheduling increment (see
setpriority(2)).
nivcsw Total involuntary context switches.
nsigs Alias: nsignals. Total signals taken.
nswap Total swaps in/out.
nvcsw Total voluntary context switches.
nwchan Wait channel (as an address).
oublk Alias: oublock. Total blocks written.
p_ru Resource usage (valid only for zombie processes).
paddr Swap address.
pagein Pageins (same as majflt).
pgid Process group number.
pid Process ID.
ppid Parent process ID.
pri Scheduling priority.
re Core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity).
rgid Real group ID.
rgroup Text name of real group ID.
rlink Reverse link on run queue, or 0.
rss The real memory (resident set) size of the process (in
1024 byte units).
rsz Alias: rssize. Resident set size + (text size / text use
count).
ruid Real user ID.
ruser User name (from ruid).
sess Session pointer.
sig Alias: pending. Pending signals.
sigcatch Alias: caught. Caught signals.
sigignore Alias: ignored. Ignored signals.
sigmask Alias: blocked. Blocked signals.
sl Sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity).
ssiz Stack size, in Kilobytes.
start Alias: etime. The time the command started. If the
command started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
displayed using the ``%l:%M%p'' format described in
strftime(3). If the command started less than 7 days
ago, the start time is displayed using the ``%a%I%p''
format. Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the
``%e%b%y'' format.
state Alias: stat. The state is given by a sequence of
letters, for example, ``RWN''. The first letter
indicates the run state of the process:
D Marks a process in disk (or other short term,
uninterruptible) wait.
I Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer
than about 20 seconds).
R Marks a runnable process.
S Marks a process that is sleeping for less than
about 20 seconds.
T Marks a stopped process.
Z Marks a dead process (a ``zombie'').
Additional characters after these, if any, indicate
additional state information:
+ The process is in the foreground process group of
its control terminal.
< The process has a raised CPU scheduling priority
(see setpriority(2)).
> The process has specified a soft limit on memory
requirements and is currently exceeding that
limit; such a process is (necessarily) not
swapped.
E The process is trying to exit.
K The process is a kernel thread.
N The process has a reduced CPU scheduling
priority.
s The process is a session leader.
V The process is suspended during a vfork(2).
X The process is being traced or debugged.
x The process is being monitored by systrace(1).
/n On multiprocessor machines, specifies processor
number n.
svgid Saved GID from a setgid executable.
svuid Saved UID from a setuid executable.
tdev Control terminal device number.
time Alias: cputime. Accumulated CPU time, user + system.
tpgid Control terminal process group ID.
tsess Control terminal session pointer.
tsiz Text size, in Kilobytes.
tt An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling
terminal, if any. The abbreviation consists of the two
letters following ``/dev/tty'', or, for the console,
``co''. This is followed by a `-' if the process can no
longer reach that controlling terminal (i.e. it has been
revoked).
tty Full name of control terminal.
ucomm Alias: comm. Name to be used for accounting.
uid Effective user ID.
upr Alias: usrpri. Scheduling priority on return from system
call.
user User name (from uid).
vsz Alias: vsize. Virtual size, in Kilobytes.
wchan The event (an address in the system) on which a process
waits. When printed numerically, the initial part of the
address is trimmed off and the result is printed in hex;
for example, 0x80324000 prints as 324000.
xstat Exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie
process).
FILES
/dev special files and device names
/var/db/kvm_bsd.db system namelist database
/var/run/dev.db /dev name database
EXIT STATUS
The ps utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
Display information on all system processes:
$ ps-auxw
SEE ALSOfstat(1), kill(1), netstat(1), pgrep(1), pkill(1), procmap(1), systat(1),
top(1), w(1), kvm(3), strftime(3), dev_mkdb(8), iostat(8), pstat(8),
vmstat(8)STANDARDS
The ps utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
specification.
The flags [-CchjkLMmNOrST] are extensions to that specification.
Behaviour for the -e flag differs between this implementation and IEEE
Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'').
HISTORY
A ps command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX in section 8 of the manual.
CAVEATS
When printing using the command keyword, a process that has exited and
has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a
zombie) is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while
trying to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''. ps makes an educated guess as
to the file name and arguments given when the process was created by
examining memory or the swap area. The method is inherently somewhat
unreliable and in any event a process is entitled to destroy this
information, so the names cannot be depended on too much. The ucomm
(accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
BUGS
Since ps cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other
scheduled process, the information it displays can never be exact.
OpenBSD 4.9 September 3, 2010 OpenBSD 4.9
