xref: /freebsd/bin/ps/ps.1 (revision 74bf4e164ba5851606a27d4feff27717452583e5)
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28.\"     @(#)ps.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd March 27, 2004
32.Dt PS 1
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm ps
36.Nd process status
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl aCcefHhjlmrSTuvwXxZ
40.Op Fl G Ar gid Ns Op , Ns Ar gid Ns Ar ...
41.Op Fl M Ar core
42.Op Fl N Ar system
43.Op Fl O Ar fmt
44.Op Fl o Ar fmt
45.Op Fl p Ar pid Ns Op , Ns Ar pid Ns Ar ...
46.Op Fl t Ar tty Ns Op , Ns Ar tty Ns Ar ...
47.Op Fl U Ar username Ns Op , Ns Ar username Ns Ar ...
48.Nm
49.Op Fl L
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility
54displays a header line, followed by lines containing information about
55all of your
56processes that have controlling terminals.
57.Pp
58A different set of processes can be selected for display by using any
59combination of the
60.Fl a , G , p , T , t ,
61and
62.Fl U
63options.
64If more than one of these options are given, then
65.Nm
66will select all processes which are matched by at least one of the
67given options.
68.Pp
69For the processes which have been selected for display,
70.Nm
71will usually display one line per process.
72The
73.Fl H
74option may result in multiple output lines (one line per thread) for
75some processes.
76By default all of these output lines are sorted first by controlling
77terminal, then by process ID.
78The
79.Fl m , r , u ,
80and
81.Fl v
82options will change the sort order.
83If more than one sorting option was given, then the selected processes
84will be sorted by the last sorting option which was specified.
85.Pp
86For the processes which have been selected for display, the information
87to display is selected based on a set of keywords (see the
88.Fl L , O ,
89and
90.Fl o
91options).
92The default output format includes, for each process, the process' ID,
93controlling terminal, CPU time (including both user and system time),
94state, and associated command.
95.Pp
96The process file system (see
97.Xr procfs 5 )
98should be mounted when
99.Nm
100is executed, otherwise not all information will be available.
101.Pp
102The options are as follows:
103.Bl -tag -width indent
104.It Fl a
105Display information about other users' processes as well as your own.
106This will skip any processes which do not have a controlling teminal,
107unless the
108.Fl x
109option is also specified.
110This can be disabled by setting the
111.Va security.bsd.see_other_uids
112sysctl to zero.
113.It Fl c
114Change the
115.Dq command
116column output to just contain the executable name,
117rather than the full command line.
118.It Fl C
119Change the way the CPU percentage is calculated by using a
120.Dq raw
121CPU calculation that ignores
122.Dq resident
123time (this normally has
124no effect).
125.It Fl e
126Display the environment as well.
127.It Fl f
128Show commandline and environment information about swapped out processes.
129This option is honored only if the UID of the user is 0.
130.It Fl G
131Display information about processes which are running with the specified
132real group IDs.
133.It Fl H
134Show all of the
135.Em kernel visible
136threads associated with each process.
137Depending on the threading package that
138is in use, this may show only the process, only the kernel scheduled entities,
139or all of the process threads.
140.It Fl h
141Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee one
142header per page of information.
143.It Fl j
144Print information associated with the following keywords:
145.Cm user , pid , ppid , pgid , sid , jobc , state , tt , time ,
146and
147.Cm command .
148.It Fl L
149List the set of keywords available for the
150.Fl O
151and
152.Fl o
153options.
154.It Fl l
155Display information associated with the following keywords:
156.Cm uid , pid , ppid , cpu , pri , nice , vsz , rss , mwchan , state ,
157.Cm tt , time ,
158and
159.Cm command .
160.It Fl M
161Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core
162instead of the currently running system.
163.It Fl m
164Sort by memory usage, instead of the combination of controlling
165terminal and process ID.
166.It Fl N
167Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default,
168which is the kernel image the system has booted from.
169.It Fl O
170Add the information associated with the space or comma separated list
171of keywords specified, after the process ID,
172in the default information
173display.
174Keywords may be appended with an equals
175.Pq Ql =
176sign and a string.
177This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
178the standard header.
179.It Fl o
180Display information associated with the space or comma separated
181list of keywords specified.
182Multiple keywords may also be given in the form of more than one
183.Fl o
184option.
185Keywords may be appended with an equals
186.Pq Ql =
187sign and a string.
188This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
189the standard header.
190.It Fl p
191Display information about processes which match the specified process IDs.
192.It Fl r
193Sort by current CPU usage, instead of the combination of controlling
194terminal and process ID.
195.It Fl S
196Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all exited
197children to their parent process.
198.It Fl T
199Display information about processes attached to the device associated
200with the standard input.
201.It Fl t
202Display information about processes attached to the specified terminal
203devices.
204.It Fl U
205Display the processes belonging to the specified usernames.
206.It Fl u
207Display information associated with the following keywords:
208.Cm user , pid , %cpu , %mem , vsz , rss , tt , state , start , time ,
209and
210.Cm command .
211The
212.Fl u
213option implies the
214.Fl r
215option.
216.It Fl v
217Display information associated with the following keywords:
218.Cm pid , state , time , sl , re , pagein , vsz , rss , lim , tsiz ,
219.Cm %cpu , %mem ,
220and
221.Cm command .
222The
223.Fl v
224option implies the
225.Fl m
226option.
227.It Fl w
228Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default which
229is your window size.
230If the
231.Fl w
232option is specified more than once,
233.Nm
234will use as many columns as necessary without regard for your window size.
235.It Fl X
236When displaying processes matched by other options, skip any processes
237which do not have a controlling terminal.
238.It Fl x
239When displaying processes matched by other options, include processes
240which do not have a controlling terminal.
241This is the opposite of the
242.Fl X
243option.
244If both
245.Fl X
246and
247.Fl x
248are specified in the same command, then
249.Nm
250will use the one which was specified last.
251.It Fl Z
252Add label to the list of keywords for which
253.Nm
254will display information.
255.El
256.Pp
257A complete list of the available keywords are listed below.
258Some of these keywords are further specified as follows:
259.Bl -tag -width lockname
260.It Cm %cpu
261The CPU utilization of the process; this is a decaying average over up to
262a minute of previous (real) time.
263Since the time base over which this is computed varies (since processes may
264be very young) it is possible for the sum of all
265.Cm %cpu
266fields to exceed 100%.
267.It Cm %mem
268The percentage of real memory used by this process.
269.It Cm flags
270The flags associated with the process as in
271the include file
272.In sys/proc.h :
273.Bl -column P_STOPPED_SINGLE 0x4000000
274.It Dv "P_ADVLOCK" Ta No "0x00001	Process may hold a POSIX advisory lock"
275.It Dv "P_CONTROLT" Ta No "0x00002	Has a controlling terminal"
276.It Dv "P_KTHREAD" Ta No "0x00004	Kernel thread"
277.It Dv "P_NOLOAD" Ta No "0x00008	Ignore during load avg calculations"
278.It Dv "P_PPWAIT" Ta No "0x00010	Parent is waiting for child to exec/exit"
279.It Dv "P_PROFIL" Ta No "0x00020	Has started profiling"
280.It Dv "P_STOPPROF" Ta No "0x00040	Has thread in requesting to stop prof"
281.It Dv "P_SUGID" Ta No "0x00100		Had set id privileges since last exec"
282.It Dv "P_SYSTEM" Ta No "0x00200	System proc: no sigs, stats or swapping"
283.It Dv "P_SINGLE_EXIT" Ta No "0x00400	Threads suspending should exit, not wait"
284.It Dv "P_TRACED" Ta No "0x00800	Debugged process being traced"
285.It Dv "P_WAITED" Ta No "0x01000	Someone is waiting for us"
286.It Dv "P_WEXIT" Ta No "0x02000		Working on exiting"
287.It Dv "P_EXEC" Ta No "0x04000		Process called exec"
288.It Dv "P_SA" Ta No "0x08000		Using scheduler activations"
289.It Dv "P_CONTINUED" Ta No "0x10000	Proc has continued from a stopped state"
290.It Dv "P_STOPPED_SIG" Ta No "0x20000	Stopped due to SIGSTOP/SIGTSTP"
291.It Dv "P_STOPPED_TRACE" Ta No "0x40000	Stopped because of tracing"
292.It Dv "P_STOPPED_SINGLE" Ta No "0x80000	Only one thread can continue"
293.It Dv "P_PROTECTED" Ta No "0x100000	Do not kill on memory overcommit"
294.It Dv "P_SIGEVENT" Ta No "0x200000	Process pending signals changed"
295.It Dv "P_JAILED" Ta No "0x1000000	Process is in jail"
296.It Dv "P_INEXEC" Ta No "0x4000000	Process is in execve()"
297.El
298.It Cm label
299The MAC label of the process.
300.It Cm lim
301The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
302.Xr setrlimit 2 .
303.It Cm lstart
304The exact time the command started, using the
305.Ql %c
306format described in
307.Xr strftime 3 .
308.It Cm lockname
309The name of the lock that the process is currently blocked on.
310If the name is invalid or unknown, then
311.Dq ???\&
312is displayed.
313.It Cm mwchan
314The event name if the process is blocked normally, or the lock name if
315the process is blocked on a lock.
316See the wchan and lockname keywords
317for details.
318.It Cm nice
319The process scheduling increment (see
320.Xr setpriority 2 ) .
321.It Cm rss
322the real memory (resident set) size of the process (in 1024 byte units).
323.It Cm start
324The time the command started.
325If the command started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
326displayed using the
327.Dq Li %l:ps.1p
328format described in
329.Xr strftime 3 .
330If the command started less than 7 days ago, the start time is
331displayed using the
332.Dq Li %a6.15p
333format.
334Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the
335.Dq Li %e%b%y
336format.
337.It Cm state
338The state is given by a sequence of characters, for example,
339.Dq Li RWNA .
340The first character indicates the run state of the process:
341.Pp
342.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
343.It Li D
344Marks a process in disk (or other short term, uninterruptible) wait.
345.It Li I
346Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
347.It Li L
348Marks a process that is waiting to acquire a lock.
349.It Li R
350Marks a runnable process.
351.It Li S
352Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
353.It Li T
354Marks a stopped process.
355.It Li W
356Marks an idle interrupt thread.
357.It Li Z
358Marks a dead process (a
359.Dq zombie ) .
360.El
361.Pp
362Additional characters after these, if any, indicate additional state
363information:
364.Pp
365.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
366.It Li +
367The process is in the foreground process group of its control terminal.
368.It Li <
369The process has raised CPU scheduling priority.
370.It Li E
371The process is trying to exit.
372.It Li J
373Marks a process which is in
374.Xr jail 2 .
375The hostname of the prison can be found in
376.Pa /proc/ Ns Ao Ar pid Ac Ns Pa /status .
377.It Li L
378The process has pages locked in core (for example, for raw
379.Tn I/O ) .
380.It Li N
381The process has reduced CPU scheduling priority (see
382.Xr setpriority 2 ) .
383.It Li s
384The process is a session leader.
385.It Li V
386The process is suspended during a
387.Xr vfork 2 .
388.It Li W
389The process is swapped out.
390.It Li X
391The process is being traced or debugged.
392.El
393.It Cm tt
394An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling terminal, if any.
395The abbreviation consists of the three letters following
396.Pa /dev/tty ,
397or, for the console,
398.Dq Li con .
399This is followed by a
400.Ql -
401if the process can no longer reach that
402controlling terminal (i.e., it has been revoked).
403.It Cm wchan
404The event (an address in the system) on which a process waits.
405When printed numerically, the initial part of the address is
406trimmed off and the result is printed in hex, for example, 0x80324000 prints
407as 324000.
408.El
409.Pp
410When printing using the command keyword, a process that has exited and
411has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a zombie)
412is listed as
413.Dq Li <defunct> ,
414and a process which is blocked while trying
415to exit is listed as
416.Dq Li <exiting> .
417If the command vector cannot be located (usually because it has not
418been set, as is the case of system processes and/or kernel threads)
419the command name is printed within square brackets.
420The
421.Nm
422utility
423makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the
424process was created by examining memory or the swap area.
425The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process
426is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be depended
427on too much.
428The ucomm (accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
429.Sh KEYWORDS
430The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
431meanings.
432Several of them have aliases (keywords which are synonyms).
433.Pp
434.Bl -tag -width ".Cm sigignore" -compact
435.It Cm %cpu
436percentage CPU usage (alias
437.Cm pcpu )
438.It Cm %mem
439percentage memory usage (alias
440.Cm pmem )
441.It Cm acflag
442accounting flag (alias
443.Cm acflg )
444.It Cm args
445command and arguments
446.It Cm comm
447command
448.It Cm command
449command and arguments
450.It Cm cpu
451short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling)
452.It Cm etime
453elapsed running time
454.It Cm flags
455the process flags, in hexadecimal (alias
456.Cm f )
457.It Cm inblk
458total blocks read (alias
459.Cm inblock )
460.It Cm jobc
461job control count
462.It Cm ktrace
463tracing flags
464.It Cm label
465MAC label
466.It Cm lim
467memoryuse limit
468.It Cm logname
469login name of user who started the process
470.It Cm lstart
471time started
472.It Cm majflt
473total page faults
474.It Cm minflt
475total page reclaims
476.It Cm msgrcv
477total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets)
478.It Cm msgsnd
479total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets)
480.It Cm lockname
481lock currently blocked on (as a symbolic name)
482.It Cm mwchan
483wait channel or lock currently blocked on
484.It Cm nice
485nice value (alias
486.Cm ni )
487.It Cm nivcsw
488total involuntary context switches
489.It Cm nsigs
490total signals taken (alias
491.Cm nsignals )
492.It Cm nswap
493total swaps in/out
494.It Cm nvcsw
495total voluntary context switches
496.It Cm nwchan
497wait channel (as an address)
498.It Cm oublk
499total blocks written (alias
500.Cm oublock )
501.It Cm paddr
502swap address
503.It Cm pagein
504pageins (same as majflt)
505.It Cm pgid
506process group number
507.It Cm pid
508process ID
509.It Cm poip
510pageouts in progress
511.It Cm ppid
512parent process ID
513.It Cm pri
514scheduling priority
515.It Cm re
516core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
517.It Cm rgid
518real group ID
519.It Cm rgroup
520group name (from rgid)
521.It Cm rlink
522reverse link on run queue, or 0
523.It Cm rss
524resident set size
525.It Cm rtprio
526realtime priority (101 = not a realtime process)
527.It Cm ruid
528real user ID
529.It Cm ruser
530user name (from ruid)
531.It Cm sid
532session ID
533.It Cm sig
534pending signals (alias
535.Cm pending )
536.It Cm sigcatch
537caught signals (alias
538.Cm caught )
539.It Cm sigignore
540ignored signals (alias
541.Cm ignored )
542.It Cm sigmask
543blocked signals (alias
544.Cm blocked )
545.It Cm sl
546sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
547.It Cm start
548time started
549.It Cm state
550symbolic process state (alias
551.Cm stat )
552.It Cm svgid
553saved gid from a setgid executable
554.It Cm svuid
555saved UID from a setuid executable
556.It Cm tdev
557control terminal device number
558.It Cm time
559accumulated CPU time, user + system (alias
560.Cm cputime )
561.It Cm tpgid
562control terminal process group ID
563.\".It Cm trss
564.\"text resident set size (in Kbytes)
565.It Cm tsid
566control terminal session ID
567.It Cm tsiz
568text size (in Kbytes)
569.It Cm tt
570control terminal name (two letter abbreviation)
571.It Cm tty
572full name of control terminal
573.It Cm uprocp
574process pointer
575.It Cm ucomm
576name to be used for accounting
577.It Cm uid
578effective user ID
579.It Cm upr
580scheduling priority on return from system call (alias
581.Cm usrpri )
582.It Cm user
583user name (from UID)
584.It Cm vsz
585virtual size in Kbytes (alias
586.Cm vsize )
587.It Cm wchan
588wait channel (as a symbolic name)
589.It Cm xstat
590exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie process)
591.El
592.Sh ENVIRONMENT
593The following environment variables affect the execution of
594.Nm :
595.Bl -tag -width ".Ev COLUMNS"
596.It Ev COLUMNS
597If set, specifies the user's preferred output width in column positions.
598By default,
599.Nm
600attempts to automatically determine the terminal width.
601.El
602.Sh FILES
603.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /boot/kernel/kernel" -compact
604.It Pa /dev/lomac
605interface used to query the
606.Xr lomac 4
607KLD
608.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
609default system namelist
610.It Pa /proc
611the mount point of
612.Xr procfs 5
613.El
614.Sh SEE ALSO
615.Xr kill 1 ,
616.Xr pgrep 1 ,
617.Xr pkill 1 ,
618.Xr w 1 ,
619.Xr kvm 3 ,
620.Xr strftime 3 ,
621.Xr lomac 4 ,
622.Xr procfs 5 ,
623.Xr pstat 8 ,
624.Xr sysctl 8 ,
625.Xr mutex 9
626.Sh STANDARDS
627For historical reasons,
628.Nm
629utility under
630.Fx
631supports a different set of options from what is described by
632.St -p1003.2 ,
633and what is supported on
634.No non- Ns Bx
635operating systems.
636.Sh HISTORY
637The
638.Nm
639command appeared in
640.At v4 .
641.Sh BUGS
642Since
643.Nm
644cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled
645process, the information it displays can never be exact.
646.Pp
647The
648.Nm
649utility does not correctly display argument lists containing multibyte
650characters.
651