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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 1.17 2007/05/25 00:59:06 dillon 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 blocked kernel thread.
229 Marks a process in disk (or other short term, uninterruptible) wait.
231 Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
233 Marks a process which is in
235 The hostname of the prison can be found in
236 .Pa /proc/ Ns Ao Ar pid Ac Ns Pa /status .
238 Marks a runnable process and is followed by the CPU number.
240 Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
242 Marks a stopped process.
244 Marks a dead process (a
248 Additional characters after these, if any, indicate additional state
251 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
253 The process is in the foreground process group of its control terminal.
255 The process has raised CPU scheduling priority.
257 The process has specified a soft limit on memory requirements and is
258 currently exceeding that limit; such a process is (necessarily) not
261 the process has asked for random page replacement
262 .Pf ( Dv MADV_RANDOM ,
267 in a garbage collect).
269 The process is trying to exit.
271 The process has pages locked in core (for example, for raw
274 On SMP systems indicates a process or thread which is
276 holding the MP lock (the Big Giant Lock).
278 The process has reduced CPU scheduling priority (see
279 .Xr setpriority 2 ) .
281 The process has asked for FIFO page replacement
282 .Pf ( Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL ,
285 for example, a large image processing program using virtual memory to
286 sequentially address voluminous data).
288 The process is a session leader.
290 The process is suspended during a
293 The process is swapped out.
295 The process is being traced or debugged.
298 An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling terminal, if any.
299 The abbreviation consists of the three letters following
301 or, for the console, ``con''.
302 This is followed by a ``-'' if the process can no longer reach that
303 controlling terminal (i.e., it has been revoked).
305 The event (an address in the system) on which a process waits.
306 When printed numerically, the initial part of the address is
307 trimmed off and the result is printed in hex, for example, 0x80324000 prints
308 as 324000. Note that blocked threads often only have ascii wchan's.
311 When printing using the
313 keyword, a process that has exited and
314 has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a zombie)
315 is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while trying
316 to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''.
320 makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the
321 process was created by examining memory or the swap area.
322 The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process
323 is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be depended
327 (accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
329 The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
331 Several of them have aliases (keywords which are synonyms).
333 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm sigignore" -compact
335 percentage CPU usage (alias
338 percentage memory usage (alias
341 accounting flag (alias
344 batchness of the process (higher numbers mean less interactivity)
346 command and arguments
348 short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling)
350 the process flags, in hexadecimal (alias
353 total blocks read (alias
364 CPU ID the process was last scheduled on
368 login name of user who started the process (alias
377 total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets)
379 total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets)
384 total involuntary context switches
386 total signals taken (alias
391 total voluntary context switches
393 wait channel (as an address)
395 total blocks written (alias
398 resource usage (valid only for zombie)
411 scheduling priority (lower == better)
413 core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
417 .\" reverse link on run queue, or 0
421 resident set size + (text size / text use count) (alias
424 realtime priority (101 = not a realtime process)
428 user name (from ruid)
432 pending signals (alias
435 caught signals (alias
438 ignored signals (alias
441 blocked signals (alias
444 sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
448 symbolic process state (alias
451 saved gid from a setgid executable
453 saved uid from a setuid executable
455 control terminal device number
457 LWKT thread priority (0-31, 31 highest), and critical section count
459 accumulated CPU time, user + system (alias
462 control terminal process group ID
464 .\"text resident set size (in Kbytes)
466 control terminal session pointer
468 pending thread signals
470 text size (in Kbytes)
472 control terminal name (two letter abbreviation)
474 full name of control terminal
476 name to be used for accounting
482 virtual size in Kbytes (alias
485 wait channel (as a symbolic name)
487 exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie process)
490 .Bl -tag -width /var/db/kvm_kernel.db -compact
492 default kernel memory
493 .It Pa /var/run/dev.db
495 .It Pa /var/db/kvm_kernel.db
496 system namelist database
498 default system namelist
519 cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled
520 process, the information it displays can never be exact.