2.11BSD#431 - /usr/man/cat1/ps.0

PS(1)		    UNIX Programmer's Manual		    PS(1)


NAME
     ps - process status

SYNOPSIS
     ps [ acgklnrtuwxU# [ core [ swap [ system ] ] ] ]

DESCRIPTION
     Ps prints certain indicia about active processes.	To get a
     complete printout on the console or lpr, use ``ps axlw'' For
     a quick snapshot of system activity, ``ps au'' is recom-
     mended.  A hyphen may precede options with no effect.  The
     following options may be specified.

     a	  asks for information about all processes with terminals
	  (ordinarily only one's own processes are displayed).

     c	  causes only the comm field to be displayed instead of
	  the arguments.  (The comm field is the tail of the path
	  name of the file the process last exec'ed.) This option
	  speeds up ps somewhat and reduces the amount of output.
	  It is also more reliable since the process can't scrib-
	  ble on top of it.

     g	  asks for all processes.  Without this option, ps only
	  prints ``interesting'' processes.  Processes are deemed
	  to be uninteresting if they are process group leaders,
	  or if their arguments begin with a `-'.  This normally
	  eliminates shells and getty processes.

     k	  causes the file /usr/sys/core is used in place of
	  /dev/kmem and /dev/mem.  This is used for postmortem
	  system debugging.

     l	  asks for a long listing.  The short listing contains
	  the user name, process ID, tty, the cumulative execu-
	  tion time of the process and an approximation to the
	  command line.

     n	  asks for numeric rather than symbolic wchans.  This
	  flag implies the ``l'' flag.

     r	  asks for ``raw'' output.  A non-human readable sequence
	  of structures is output on the standard output.  There
	  is one structure for each process, the format is
	  defined by <psout.h>

     tttyname
	  restricts output to processes whose controlling tty is
	  the specified ttyname (which should be specified as
	  printed by ps, including t? for processes with no tty).
	  This option must be the last one given.


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PS(1)		    UNIX Programmer's Manual		    PS(1)


     u	  A user oriented output is produced.  This includes the
	  name of the owner of the process, process id, nice
	  value, size, tty, cpu time used, and the command.

     w	  tells ps you are on a wide terminal (132 columns).  Ps
	  normally assumes you are on an 80 column terminal.
	  This information is used to decide how much of long
	  commands to print.  The w option may be repeated, e.g.
	  ww, and the entire command, up to 128 characters, will
	  be printed without regard to terminal width.

     x	  asks even about processes with no terminal.

     U	  causes ps to update a private database where is keeps
	  system information.  Thus ``ps -U'' should be included
	  in the /etc/rc file.

     #	  A process number may be given, (indicated here by #),
	  in which case the output is restricted to that process.
	  This option must also be last.

     A second argument tells ps where to look for core if the k
     option is given, instead of /usr/sys/core.  A third argument
     is the name of a swap file to use instead of the default
     /dev/swap.  If a fourth argument is given, it is taken to be
     the file containing the system's namelist.  Otherwise,
     ``/unix'' is used.

     The output is sorted by tty, then by process ID.

     The long listing is columnar and contains

     F	  Flags associated with the process.  These are defined
	  by #define lines in /usr/include/sys/proc.h.

     S	  The state of the process.  0: nonexistent; S: sleeping;
	  W: waiting; R: running; I: intermediate; Z: terminated;
	  T: stopped.

     UID  The user id of the process owner.

     PID  The process ID of the process; as in certain cults it
	  is possible to kill a process if you know its true
	  name.

     PPID The process ID of the parent process.

     CPU  Processor utilization for scheduling.

     PRI  The priority of the process; high numbers mean low
	  priority.


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PS(1)		    UNIX Programmer's Manual		    PS(1)


     NICE Used in priority computation.

     ADDR The memory address of the process if resident, other-
	  wise the disk address.

     SZ   The size in blocks (512 bytes) of the memory image of
	  the process.

     WCHAN
	  The event for which the process is waiting or sleeping;
	  if blank, the process is running.

     TTY  The controlling tty for the process.

     TIME The cumulative execution time for the process.

     COMMAND
	  The command and its arguments.

     A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet
     been waited for by the parent is marked <defunct>.  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 counted on too much.

FILES
     /unix		 system namelist
     /dev/kmem		 kernel memory
     /dev/swap		 swap device
     /usr/sys/core	 core file
     /dev		 searched to find swap device and tty
     names
     /var/run/psdatabase system namelist and device information

SEE ALSO
     kill(1), w(1), pstat(8)

BUGS
     Things can change while ps is running; the picture it gives
     is only a close approximation to reality.

     Some processes, typically those in the background, are
     printed with null or garbaged arguments, even though the
     process has not swapped.  (Sometimes ps even loses on its
     own arguments!) In these cases, the name of the command is
     printed in parentheses.

     When automatic crash dumps are enabled, /usr/sys/core is not
     a sensible default core file name.


Printed 11/26/99						3