xref: /freebsd/bin/ps/ps.1 (revision f4c5766baa461767ccb595252b1614f1ecc6f1a7)
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32.\"     @(#)ps.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd April 18, 1994
36.Dt PS 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm ps
40.Nd process status
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl aCcefhjlmrSTuvwxZ
44.Op Fl M Ar core
45.Op Fl N Ar system
46.Op Fl O Ar fmt
47.Op Fl o Ar fmt
48.Op Fl p Ar pid
49.Op Fl t Ar tty
50.Oo Fl U Ar username Ns Xo
51.Op , Ns Ar username Ns No ...
52.Xc
53.Oc
54.Nm
55.Op Fl L
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The
58.Nm
59utility
60displays a header line followed by lines containing information about your
61processes that have controlling terminals.
62This information is sorted by controlling terminal, then by process
63.Tn ID .
64.Pp
65The information displayed is selected based on a set of keywords (see the
66.Fl L
67.Fl O
68and
69.Fl o
70options).
71The default output format includes, for each process, the process'
72.Tn ID ,
73controlling terminal, cpu time (including both user and system time),
74state, and associated command.
75.Pp
76The process file system (see
77.Xr procfs 5 )
78should be mounted when
79.Nm
80is executed, otherwise not all information will be available.
81.Pp
82The options are as follows:
83.Bl -tag -width indent
84.It Fl a
85Display information about other users' processes as well as your own.
86This can be disabled by setting the
87.Va security.bsd.see_other_uids
88sysctl to zero.
89.It Fl c
90Change the ``command'' column output to just contain the executable name,
91rather than the full command line.
92.It Fl C
93Change the way the cpu percentage is calculated by using a ``raw''
94cpu calculation that ignores ``resident'' time (this normally has
95no effect).
96.It Fl e
97Display the environment as well.
98.It Fl f
99Show commandline and environment information about swapped out processes.
100This option is honored only if the uid of the user is 0.
101.It Fl h
102Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee one
103header per page of information.
104.It Fl j
105Print information associated with the following keywords:
106user, pid, ppid, pgid, jobc, state, tt, time and command.
107.It Fl L
108List the set of available keywords.
109.It Fl l
110Display information associated with the following keywords:
111uid, pid, ppid, cpu, pri, nice, vsz, rss, mwchan, state, tt, time
112and command.
113.It Fl M
114Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core
115instead of the default
116.Pa /dev/kmem .
117.It Fl m
118Sort by memory usage, instead of by process
119.Tn ID .
120.It Fl N
121Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default
122.Pa /boot/kernel/kernel .
123.It Fl O
124Add the information associated with the space or comma separated list
125of keywords specified, after the process
126.Tn ID ,
127in the default information
128display.
129Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
130This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
131the standard header.
132.It Fl o
133Display information associated with the space or comma separated
134list of keywords specified.
135Multiple keywords may also be given in the form of more than one
136.Fl o
137option.
138Keywords may be appended with an equals (``='') sign and a string.
139This causes the printed header to use the specified string instead of
140the standard header.
141.It Fl p
142Display information associated with the specified process
143.Tn ID .
144.It Fl r
145Sort by current cpu usage, instead of by process
146.Tn ID .
147.It Fl S
148Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all exited
149children to their parent process.
150.It Fl T
151Display information about processes attached to the device associated
152with the standard input.
153.It Fl t
154Display information about processes attached to the specified terminal
155device.
156.It Fl U
157Display the processes belonging to the specified
158.Ar username Ns (s) .
159.It Fl u
160Display information associated with the following keywords:
161user, pid, %cpu, %mem, vsz, rss, tt, state, start, time and command.
162The
163.Fl u
164option implies the
165.Fl r
166option.
167.It Fl v
168Display information associated with the following keywords:
169pid, state, time, sl, re, pagein, vsz, rss, lim, tsiz,
170%cpu, %mem and command.
171The
172.Fl v
173option implies the
174.Fl m
175option.
176.It Fl w
177Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default which
178is your window size.
179If the
180.Fl w
181option is specified more than once,
182.Nm
183will use as many columns as necessary without regard for your window size.
184.It Fl x
185Display information about processes without controlling terminals.
186.It Fl Z
187Add label to the list of keywords for which
188.Nm
189will display information.
190.El
191.Pp
192A complete list of the available keywords are listed below.
193Some of these keywords are further specified as follows:
194.Bl -tag -width lockname
195.It %cpu
196The cpu utilization of the process; this is a decaying average over up to
197a minute of previous (real) time.
198Since the time base over which this is computed varies (since processes may
199be very young) it is possible for the sum of all
200.Tn \&%CPU
201fields to exceed 100%.
202.It %mem
203The percentage of real memory used by this process.
204.It flags
205The flags associated with the process as in
206the include file
207.Aq Pa sys/proc.h :
208.Bl -column P_NOCLDSTOP P_NOCLDSTOP
209.It Dv "P_ADVLOCK" Ta No "0x00001	Process may hold a POSIX advisory lock"
210.It Dv "P_CONTROLT" Ta No "0x00002	Has a controlling terminal"
211.It Dv "P_INMEM" Ta No "0x00004		Loaded into memory"
212.It Dv "P_NOCLDSTOP" Ta No "0x00008	No SIGCHLD when children stop"
213.It Dv "P_PPWAIT" Ta No "0x00010	Parent is waiting for child to exec/exit"
214.It Dv "P_PROFIL" Ta No "0x00020	Has started profiling"
215.It Dv "P_SELECT" Ta No "0x00040	Selecting; wakeup/waiting danger"
216.It Dv "P_SINTR" Ta No "0x00080		Sleep is interruptible"
217.It Dv "P_SUGID" Ta No "0x00100		Had set id privileges since last exec"
218.It Dv "P_SYSTEM" Ta No "0x00200	System proc: no sigs, stats or swapping"
219.It Dv "P_TIMEOUT" Ta No "0x00400	Timing out during sleep"
220.It Dv "P_TRACED" Ta No "0x00800	Debugged process being traced"
221.It Dv "P_WAITED" Ta No "0x01000	Debugging process has waited for child"
222.It Dv "P_WEXIT" Ta No "0x02000		Working on exiting"
223.It Dv "P_EXEC" Ta No "0x04000		Process called exec"
224.It Dv "P_OWEUPC" Ta No "0x20000	Owe process an addupc() call at next ast"
225.It Dv "P_SWAPPING" Ta No "0x40000	Process is being swapped"
226.El
227.It label
228The MAC label of the process.
229.It lim
230The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
231.Xr setrlimit 2 .
232.It lstart
233The exact time the command started, using the ``%c'' format described in
234.Xr strftime 3 .
235.It lockname
236The name of the lock that the process is currently blocked on.
237If the name is invalid or unknown, then
238.Dq ???\&
239is displayed.
240.It mwchan
241The event name if the process is blocked normally, or the lock name if
242the process is blocked on a lock.
243See the wchan and lockname keywords
244for details.
245.It nice
246The process scheduling increment (see
247.Xr setpriority 2 ) .
248.It rss
249the real memory (resident set) size of the process (in 1024 byte units).
250.It start
251The time the command started.
252If the command started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
253displayed using the ``%l:ps.1p'' format described in
254.Xr strftime 3 .
255If the command started less than 7 days ago, the start time is
256displayed using the ``%a6.15p'' format.
257Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the ``%e%b%y'' format.
258.It state
259The state is given by a sequence of letters, for example,
260.Dq Tn RWNA .
261The first letter indicates the run state of the process:
262.Pp
263.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
264.It D
265Marks a process in disk (or other short term, uninterruptible) wait.
266.It I
267Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
268.It J
269Marks a process which is in
270.Xr jail 2 .
271The hostname of the prison can be found in
272.Ql /proc/<pid>/status .
273.It L
274Marks a process that is waiting to acquire a lock.
275.It R
276Marks a runnable process.
277.It S
278Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
279.It T
280Marks a stopped process.
281.It Z
282Marks a dead process (a ``zombie'').
283.El
284.Pp
285Additional characters after these, if any, indicate additional state
286information:
287.Pp
288.Bl -tag -width indent -compact
289.It +
290The process is in the foreground process group of its control terminal.
291.It <
292The process has raised
293.Tn CPU
294scheduling priority.
295.It >
296The process has specified a soft limit on memory requirements and is
297currently exceeding that limit; such a process is (necessarily) not
298swapped.
299.It A
300the process has asked for random page replacement
301.Pf ( Dv MADV_RANDOM ,
302from
303.Xr madvise 2 ,
304for example, lisp in a garbage collect).
305.It E
306The process is trying to exit.
307.It L
308The process has pages locked in core (for example, for raw
309.Tn I/O ) .
310.It N
311The process has reduced
312.Tn CPU
313scheduling priority (see
314.Xr setpriority 2 ) .
315.It S
316The process has asked for
317.Tn FIFO
318page replacement
319.Pf ( Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL ,
320from
321.Xr madvise 2 ,
322for example, a large image processing program using virtual memory to
323sequentially address voluminous data).
324.It s
325The process is a session leader.
326.It V
327The process is suspended during a
328.Xr vfork .
329.It W
330The process is swapped out.
331.It X
332The process is being traced or debugged.
333.El
334.It tt
335An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling terminal, if any.
336The abbreviation consists of the three letters following
337.Pa /dev/tty ,
338or, for the console, ``con''.
339This is followed by a ``-'' if the process can no longer reach that
340controlling terminal (i.e., it has been revoked).
341.It wchan
342The event (an address in the system) on which a process waits.
343When printed numerically, the initial part of the address is
344trimmed off and the result is printed in hex, for example, 0x80324000 prints
345as 324000.
346.El
347.Pp
348When printing using the command keyword, a process that has exited and
349has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a zombie)
350is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while trying
351to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''.
352The
353.Nm
354utility
355makes an educated guess as to the file name and arguments given when the
356process was created by examining memory or the swap area.
357The method is inherently somewhat unreliable and in any event a process
358is entitled to destroy this information, so the names cannot be depended
359on too much.
360The ucomm (accounting) keyword can, however, be depended on.
361.Sh KEYWORDS
362The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
363meanings.
364Several of them have aliases (keywords which are synonyms).
365.Pp
366.Bl -tag -width sigignore -compact
367.It %cpu
368percentage cpu usage (alias pcpu)
369.It %mem
370percentage memory usage (alias pmem)
371.It acflag
372accounting flag (alias acflg)
373.It args
374command and arguments
375.It comm
376command
377.It command
378command and arguments
379.It cpu
380short-term cpu usage factor (for scheduling)
381.It etime
382elapsed running time
383.It flags
384the process flags, in hexadecimal (alias f)
385.It inblk
386total blocks read (alias inblock)
387.It jobc
388job control count
389.It ktrace
390tracing flags
391.It label
392MAC label
393.It lim
394memoryuse limit
395.It logname
396login name of user who started the process
397.It lstart
398time started
399.It majflt
400total page faults
401.It minflt
402total page reclaims
403.It msgrcv
404total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets)
405.It msgsnd
406total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets)
407.It lockname
408lock currently blocked on (as a symbolic name)
409.It mwchan
410wait channel or lock currently blocked on
411.It nice
412nice value (alias ni)
413.It nivcsw
414total involuntary context switches
415.It nsigs
416total signals taken (alias nsignals)
417.It nswap
418total swaps in/out
419.It nvcsw
420total voluntary context switches
421.It nwchan
422wait channel (as an address)
423.It oublk
424total blocks written (alias oublock)
425.It paddr
426swap address
427.It pagein
428pageins (same as majflt)
429.It pgid
430process group number
431.It pid
432process
433.Tn ID
434.It poip
435pageouts in progress
436.It ppid
437parent process
438.Tn ID
439.It pri
440scheduling priority
441.It re
442core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
443.It rgid
444real group
445.Tn ID
446.It rgroup
447group name (from rgid)
448.It rlink
449reverse link on run queue, or 0
450.It rss
451resident set size
452.It rtprio
453realtime priority (101 = not a realtime process)
454.It ruid
455real user
456.Tn ID
457.It ruser
458user name (from ruid)
459.It sid
460session
461.Tn ID
462.It sig
463pending signals (alias pending)
464.It sigcatch
465caught signals (alias caught)
466.It sigignore
467ignored signals (alias ignored)
468.It sigmask
469blocked signals (alias blocked)
470.It sl
471sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity)
472.It start
473time started
474.It state
475symbolic process state (alias stat)
476.It svgid
477saved gid from a setgid executable
478.It svuid
479saved uid from a setuid executable
480.It tdev
481control terminal device number
482.It time
483accumulated cpu time, user + system (alias cputime)
484.It tpgid
485control terminal process group
486.Tn ID
487.\".It trss
488.\"text resident set size (in Kbytes)
489.It tsid
490control terminal session
491.Tn ID
492.It tsiz
493text size (in Kbytes)
494.It tt
495control terminal name (two letter abbreviation)
496.It tty
497full name of control terminal
498.It uprocp
499process pointer
500.It ucomm
501name to be used for accounting
502.It uid
503effective user
504.Tn ID
505.It upr
506scheduling priority on return from system call (alias usrpri)
507.It user
508user name (from uid)
509.It vsz
510virtual size in Kbytes (alias vsize)
511.It wchan
512wait channel (as a symbolic name)
513.It xstat
514exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie process)
515.El
516.Sh ENVIRONMENT
517The following environment variables affect the execution of
518.Nm :
519.Bl -tag -width ".Ev COLUMNS"
520.It Ev COLUMNS
521If set, specifies the user's preferred output width in column positions.
522By default,
523.Nm
524attempts to automatically determine the terminal width.
525.El
526.Sh FILES
527.Bl -tag -width /var/db/kvm_kernel.db -compact
528.It Pa /dev/kmem
529default kernel memory
530.It Pa /dev/lomac
531interface used to query the
532.Xr lomac 4
533KLD
534.It Pa /var/run/dev.db
535/dev name database
536.It Pa /var/db/kvm_kernel.db
537system namelist database
538.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
539default system namelist
540.It Pa /proc
541the mount point of
542.Xr procfs 5
543.El
544.Sh SEE ALSO
545.Xr kill 1 ,
546.Xr w 1 ,
547.Xr kvm 3 ,
548.Xr strftime 3 ,
549.Xr lomac 4 ,
550.Xr procfs 5 ,
551.Xr pstat 8 ,
552.Xr sysctl 8 ,
553.Xr mutex 9
554.Sh HISTORY
555The
556.Nm
557command appeared in
558.At v4 .
559.Sh BUGS
560Since
561.Nm
562cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled
563process, the information it displays can never be exact.
564