NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES | SIMPLE PROCESS SELECTION | PROCESS SELECTION BY LIST | OUTPUT FORMAT CONTROL | OUTPUT MODIFIERS | THREAD DISPLAY | OTHER INFORMATION | NOTES | PROCESS FLAGS | PROCESS STATE CODES | OBSOLETE SORT KEYS | AIX FORMAT DESCRIPTORS | STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | PERSONALITY | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

PS(1)                           User Commands                          PS(1)

NAME         top

       ps - report a snapshot of the current processes.

SYNOPSIS         top

       ps [options]

DESCRIPTION         top

       ps displays information about a selection of the active processes.
       If you want a repetitive update of the selection and the displayed
       information, use top(1) instead.
       This version of ps accepts several kinds of options:
       1   UNIX options, which may be grouped and must be preceded by a
           dash.
       2   BSD options, which may be grouped and must not be used with a
           dash.
       3   GNU long options, which are preceded by two dashes.
       Options of different types may be freely mixed, but conflicts can
       appear.  There are some synonymous options, which are functionally
       identical, due to the many standards and ps implementations that this
       ps is compatible with.
       Note that "ps -aux" is distinct from "ps aux".  The POSIX and UNIX
       standards require that "ps -aux" print all processes owned by a user
       named "x", as well as printing all processes that would be selected
       by the -a option.  If the user named "x" does not exist, this ps may
       interpret the command as "ps aux" instead and print a warning.  This
       behavior is intended to aid in transitioning old scripts and habits.
       It is fragile, subject to change, and thus should not be relied upon.
       By default, ps selects all processes with the same effective user ID
       (euid=EUID) as the current user and associated with the same terminal
       as the invoker.  It displays the process ID (pid=PID), the terminal
       associated with the process (tname=TTY), the cumulated CPU time in
       [DD-]hh:mm:ss format (time=TIME), and the executable name (ucmd=CMD).
       Output is unsorted by default.
       The use of BSD-style options will add process state (stat=STAT) to
       the default display and show the command args (args=COMMAND) instead
       of the executable name.  You can override this with the PS_FORMAT
       environment variable. The use of BSD-style options will also change
       the process selection to include processes on other terminals (TTYs)
       that are owned by you; alternately, this may be described as setting
       the selection to be the set of all processes filtered to exclude
       processes owned by other users or not on a terminal.  These effects
       are not considered when options are described as being "identical"
       below, so -M will be considered identical to Z and so on.
       Except as described below, process selection options are additive.
       The default selection is discarded, and then the selected processes
       are added to the set of processes to be displayed.  A process will
       thus be shown if it meets any of the given selection criteria.

EXAMPLES         top

       To see every process on the system using standard syntax:
          ps -e
          ps -ef
          ps -eF
          ps -ely
       To see every process on the system using BSD syntax:
          ps ax
          ps axu
       To print a process tree:
          ps -ejH
          ps axjf
       To get info about threads:
          ps -eLf
          ps axms
       To get security info:
          ps -eo euser,ruser,suser,fuser,f,comm,label
          ps axZ
          ps -eM
       To see every process running as root (real & effective ID) in user
       format:
          ps -U root -u root u
       To see every process with a user-defined format:
          ps -eo pid,tid,class,rtprio,ni,pri,psr,pcpu,stat,wchan:14,comm
          ps axo stat,euid,ruid,tty,tpgid,sess,pgrp,ppid,pid,pcpu,comm
          ps -Ao pid,tt,user,fname,tmout,f,wchan
       Print only the process IDs of syslogd:
          ps -C syslogd -o pid=
       Print only the name of PID 42:
          ps -q 42 -o comm=

SIMPLE PROCESS SELECTION         top

       a      Lift the BSD-style "only yourself" restriction, which is
              imposed upon the set of all processes when some BSD-style
              (without "-") options are used or when the ps personality
              setting is BSD-like.  The set of processes selected in this
              manner is in addition to the set of processes selected by
              other means.  An alternate description is that this option
              causes ps to list all processes with a terminal (tty), or to
              list all processes when used together with the x option.
       -A     Select all processes.  Identical to -e.
       -a     Select all processes except both session leaders (see
              getsid(2)) and processes not associated with a terminal.
       -d     Select all processes except session leaders.
       --deselect
              Select all processes except those that fulfill the specified
              conditions (negates the selection).  Identical to -N.
       -e     Select all processes.  Identical to -A.
       g      Really all, even session leaders.  This flag is obsolete and
              may be discontinued in a future release.  It is normally
              implied by the a flag, and is only useful when operating in
              the sunos4 personality.
       -N     Select all processes except those that fulfill the specified
              conditions (negates the selection).  Identical to --deselect.
       T      Select all processes associated with this terminal.  Identical
              to the t option without any argument.
       r      Restrict the selection to only running processes.
       x      Lift the BSD-style "must have a tty" restriction, which is
              imposed upon the set of all processes when some BSD-style
              (without "-") options are used or when the ps personality
              setting is BSD-like.  The set of processes selected in this
              manner is in addition to the set of processes selected by
              other means.  An alternate description is that this option
              causes ps to list all processes owned by you (same EUID as
              ps), or to list all processes when used together with the a
              option.

PROCESS SELECTION BY LIST         top

       These options accept a single argument in the form of a
       blank-separated or comma-separated list.  They can be used multiple
       times.  For example: ps -p "1 2" -p 3,4
       -123   Identical to --pid 123.
       123    Identical to --pid 123.
       -C cmdlist
              Select by command name.  This selects the processes whose
              executable name is given in cmdlist.
       -G grplist
              Select by real group ID (RGID) or name.  This selects the
              processes whose real group name or ID is in the grplist list.
              The real group ID identifies the group of the user who created
              the process, see getgid(2).
       -g grplist
              Select by session OR by effective group name.  Selection by
              session is specified by many standards, but selection by
              effective group is the logical behavior that several other
              operating systems use.  This ps will select by session when
              the list is completely numeric (as sessions are).  Group ID
              numbers will work only when some group names are also
              specified.  See the -s and --group options.
       --Group grplist
              Select by real group ID (RGID) or name.  Identical to -G.
       --group grplist
              Select by effective group ID (EGID) or name.  This selects the
              processes whose effective group name or ID is in grplist.  The
              effective group ID describes the group whose file access
              permissions are used by the process (see getegid(2)).  The -g
              option is often an alternative to --group.
       p pidlist
              Select by process ID.  Identical to -p and --pid.
       -p pidlist
              Select by PID.  This selects the processes whose process ID
              numbers appear in pidlist.  Identical to p and --pid.
       --pid pidlist
              Select by process ID.  Identical to -p and p.
       --ppid pidlist
              Select by parent process ID.  This selects the processes with
              a parent process ID in pidlist.  That is, it selects processes
              that are children of those listed in pidlist.
       q pidlist
              Select by process ID (quick mode).  Identical to -q and
              --quick-pid.
       -q pidlist
              Select by PID (quick mode).  This selects the processes whose
              process ID numbers appear in pidlist.  With this option ps
              reads the necessary info only for the pids listed in the
              pidlist and doesn't apply additional filtering rules. The
              order of pids is unsorted and preserved. No additional
              selection options, sorting and forest type listings are
              allowed in this mode.  Identical to q and --quick-pid.
       --quick-pid pidlist
              Select by process ID (quick mode).  Identical to -q and q.
       -s sesslist
              Select by session ID.  This selects the processes with a
              session ID specified in sesslist.
       --sid sesslist
              Select by session ID.  Identical to -s.
       t ttylist
              Select by tty.  Nearly identical to -t and --tty, but can also
              be used with an empty ttylist to indicate the terminal
              associated with ps.  Using the T option is considered cleaner
              than using t with an empty ttylist.
       -t ttylist
              Select by tty.  This selects the processes associated with the
              terminals given in ttylist.  Terminals (ttys, or screens for
              text output) can be specified in several forms: /dev/ttyS1,
              ttyS1, S1.  A plain "-" may be used to select processes not
              attached to any terminal.
       --tty ttylist
              Select by terminal.  Identical to -t and t.
       U userlist
              Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name.  This selects the
              processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist.  The
              effective user ID describes the user whose file access
              permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)).
              Identical to -u and --user.
       -U userlist
              Select by real user ID (RUID) or name.  It selects the
              processes whose real user name or ID is in the userlist list.
              The real user ID identifies the user who created the process,
              see getuid(2).
       -u userlist
              Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name.  This selects the
              processes whose effective user name or ID is in userlist.
              The effective user ID describes the user whose file access
              permissions are used by the process (see geteuid(2)).
              Identical to U and --user.
       --User userlist
              Select by real user ID (RUID) or name.  Identical to -U.
       --user userlist
              Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name.  Identical to -u
              and U.

OUTPUT FORMAT CONTROL         top

       These options are used to choose the information displayed by ps.
       The output may differ by personality.
       -c     Show different scheduler information for the -l option.
       --context
              Display security context format (for SELinux).
       -f     Do full-format listing. This option can be combined with many
              other UNIX-style options to add additional columns.  It also
              causes the command arguments to be printed.  When used with
              -L, the NLWP (number of threads) and LWP (thread ID) columns
              will be added.  See the c option, the format keyword args, and
              the format keyword comm.
       -F     Extra full format.  See the -f option, which -F implies.
       --format format
              user-defined format.  Identical to -o and o.
       j      BSD job control format.
       -j     Jobs format.
       l      Display BSD long format.
       -l     Long format.  The -y option is often useful with this.
       -M     Add a column of security data.  Identical to Z (for SELinux).
       O format
              is preloaded o (overloaded).  The BSD O option can act like -O
              (user-defined output format with some common fields
              predefined) or can be used to specify sort order.  Heuristics
              are used to determine the behavior of this option.  To ensure
              that the desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting),
              specify the option in some other way (e.g.  with -O or
              --sort).  When used as a formatting option, it is identical to
              -O, with the BSD personality.
       -O format
              Like -o, but preloaded with some default columns.  Identical
              to -o pid,format,state,tname,time,command or -o pid,format,
              tname,time,cmd, see -o below.
       o format
              Specify user-defined format.  Identical to -o and --format.
       -o format
              User-defined format.  format is a single argument in the form
              of a blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers a
              way to specify individual output columns.  The recognized
              keywords are described in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS
              section below.  Headers may be renamed (ps -o pid,
              ruser=RealUser -o comm=Command) as desired.  If all column
              headers are empty (ps -o pid= -o comm=) then the header line
              will not be output.  Column width will increase as needed for
              wide headers; this may be used to widen up columns such as
              WCHAN (ps -o pid,wchan=WIDE-WCHAN-COLUMN -o comm).  Explicit
              width control (ps opid,wchan:42,cmd) is offered too.  The
              behavior of ps -o pid=X,comm=Y varies with personality; output
              may be one column named "X,comm=Y" or two columns named "X"
              and "Y".  Use multiple -o options when in doubt.  Use the
              PS_FORMAT environment variable to specify a default as
              desired; DefSysV and DefBSD are macros that may be used to
              choose the default UNIX or BSD columns.
       s      Display signal format.
       u      Display user-oriented format.
       v      Display virtual memory format.
       X      Register format.
       -y     Do not show flags; show rss in place of addr.  This option can
              only be used with -l.
       Z      Add a column of security data.  Identical to -M (for SELinux).

OUTPUT MODIFIERS         top

       c      Show the true command name.  This is derived from the name of
              the executable file, rather than from the argv value.  Command
              arguments and any modifications to them are thus not shown.
              This option effectively turns the args format keyword into the
              comm format keyword; it is useful with the -f format option
              and with the various BSD-style format options, which all
              normally display the command arguments.  See the -f option,
              the format keyword args, and the format keyword comm.
       --cols n
              Set screen width.
       --columns n
              Set screen width.
       --cumulative
              Include some dead child process data (as a sum with the
              parent).
       e      Show the environment after the command.
       f      ASCII art process hierarchy (forest).
       --forest
              ASCII art process tree.
       h      No header.  (or, one header per screen in the BSD
              personality).  The h option is problematic.  Standard BSD ps
              uses this option to print a header on each page of output, but
              older Linux ps uses this option to totally disable the header.
              This version of ps follows the Linux usage of not printing the
              header unless the BSD personality has been selected, in which
              case it prints a header on each page of output.  Regardless of
              the current personality, you can use the long options
              --headers and --no-headers to enable printing headers each
              page or disable headers entirely, respectively.
       -H     Show process hierarchy (forest).
       --headers
              Repeat header lines, one per page of output.
       k spec Specify sorting order.  Sorting syntax is
              [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]].  Choose a multi-letter key from the
              STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section.  The "+" is optional since
              default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
              order.  Identical to --sort.
                      Examples:
                      ps jaxkuid,-ppid,+pid
                      ps axk comm o comm,args
                      ps kstart_time -ef
       --lines n
              Set screen height.
       n      Numeric output for WCHAN and USER (including all types of UID
              and GID).
       --no-headers
              Print no header line at all.  --no-heading is an alias for
              this option.
       O order
              Sorting order (overloaded).  The BSD O option can act like -O
              (user-defined output format with some common fields
              predefined) or can be used to specify sort order.  Heuristics
              are used to determine the behavior of this option.  To ensure
              that the desired behavior is obtained (sorting or formatting),
              specify the option in some other way (e.g.  with -O or
              --sort).
              For sorting, obsolete BSD O option syntax is
              O[+|-]k1[,[+|-]k2[,...]].  It orders the processes listing
              according to the multilevel sort specified by the sequence of
              one-letter short keys k1,k2, ...  described in the OBSOLETE
              SORT KEYS section below.  The "+" is currently optional,
              merely re-iterating the default direction on a key, but may
              help to distinguish an O sort from an O format.  The "-"
              reverses direction only on the key it precedes.
       --rows n
              Set screen height.
       S      Sum up some information, such as CPU usage, from dead child
              processes into their parent.  This is useful for examining a
              system where a parent process repeatedly forks off short-lived
              children to do work.
       --sort spec
              Specify sorting order.  Sorting syntax is
              [+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]].  Choose a multi-letter key from the
              STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section.  The "+" is optional since
              default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic
              order.  Identical to k.  For example: ps jax --sort=uid,-ppid,
              +pid
       w      Wide output.  Use this option twice for unlimited width.
       -w     Wide output.  Use this option twice for unlimited width.
       --width n
              Set screen width.

THREAD DISPLAY         top

       H      Show threads as if they were processes.
       -L     Show threads, possibly with LWP and NLWP columns.
       m      Show threads after processes.
       -m     Show threads after processes.
       -T     Show threads, possibly with SPID column.

OTHER INFORMATION         top

       --help section
              Print a help message.  The section argument can be one of
              simple, list, output, threads, misc or all.  The argument can
              be shortened to one of the underlined letters as in:
              s|l|o|t|m|a.
       --info Print debugging info.
       L      List all format specifiers.
       V      Print the procps-ng version.
       -V     Print the procps-ng version.
       --version
              Print the procps-ng version.

NOTES         top

       This ps works by reading the virtual files in /proc.  This ps does
       not need to be setuid kmem or have any privileges to run.  Do not
       give this ps any special permissions.
       CPU usage is currently expressed as the percentage of time spent
       running during the entire lifetime of a process.  This is not ideal,
       and it does not conform to the standards that ps otherwise conforms
       to.  CPU usage is unlikely to add up to exactly 100%.
       The SIZE and RSS fields don't count some parts of a process including
       the page tables, kernel stack, struct thread_info, and struct
       task_struct.  This is usually at least 20 KiB of memory that is
       always resident.  SIZE is the virtual size of the process (code+data+
       stack).
       Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies")
       that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly.
       These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process
       exits.
       If the length of the username is greater than the length of the
       display column, the username will be truncated. See the -o and -O
       formatting options to customize length.
       Commands options such as ps -aux are not recommended as it is a
       confusion of two different standards.  According to the POSIX and
       UNIX standards, the above command asks to display all processes with
       a TTY (generally the commands users are running) plus all processes
       owned by a user named "x".  If that user doesn't exist, then ps will
       assume you really meant "ps aux".

PROCESS FLAGS         top

       The sum of these values is displayed in the "F" column, which is
       provided by the flags output specifier:
               1    forked but didn't exec
               4    used super-user privileges

PROCESS STATE CODES         top

       Here are the different values that the s, stat and state output
       specifiers (header "STAT" or "S") will display to describe the state
       of a process:
               D    uninterruptible sleep (usually IO)
               R    running or runnable (on run queue)
               S    interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)
               T    stopped by job control signal
               t    stopped by debugger during the tracing
               W    paging (not valid since the 2.6.xx kernel)
               X    dead (should never be seen)
               Z    defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by
                    its parent
       For BSD formats and when the stat keyword is used, additional
       characters may be displayed:
               <    high-priority (not nice to other users)
               N    low-priority (nice to other users)
               L    has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom
                    IO)
               s    is a session leader
               l    is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL
                    pthreads do)
               +    is in the foreground process group

OBSOLETE SORT KEYS         top

       These keys are used by the BSD O option (when it is used for
       sorting).  The GNU --sort option doesn't use these keys, but the
       specifiers described below in the STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS section.
       Note that the values used in sorting are the internal values ps uses
       and not the "cooked" values used in some of the output format fields
       (e.g.  sorting on tty will sort into device number, not according to
       the terminal name displayed).  Pipe ps output into the sort(1)
       command if you want to sort the cooked values.
       KEY   LONG         DESCRIPTION
       c     cmd          simple name of executable
       C     pcpu         cpu utilization
       f     flags        flags as in long format F field
       g     pgrp         process group ID
       G     tpgid        controlling tty process group ID
       j     cutime       cumulative user time
       J     cstime       cumulative system time
       k     utime        user time
       m     min_flt      number of minor page faults
       M     maj_flt      number of major page faults
       n     cmin_flt     cumulative minor page faults
       N     cmaj_flt     cumulative major page faults
       o     session      session ID
       p     pid          process ID
       P     ppid         parent process ID
       r     rss          resident set size
       R     resident     resident pages
       s     size         memory size in kilobytes
       S     share        amount of shared pages
       t     tty          the device number of the controlling tty
       T     start_time   time process was started
       U     uid          user ID number
       u     user         user name
       v     vsize        total VM size in KiB
       y     priority     kernel scheduling priority

AIX FORMAT DESCRIPTORS         top

       This ps supports AIX format descriptors, which work somewhat like the
       formatting codes of printf(1) and printf(3).  For example, the normal
       default output can be produced with this: ps -eo "%p %y %x %c".  The
       NORMAL codes are described in the next section.
       CODE   NORMAL   HEADER
       %C     pcpu     %CPU
       %G     group    GROUP
       %P     ppid     PPID
       %U     user     USER
       %a     args     COMMAND
       %c     comm     COMMAND
       %g     rgroup   RGROUP
       %n     nice     NI
       %p     pid      PID
       %r     pgid     PGID
       %t     etime    ELAPSED
       %u     ruser    RUSER
       %x     time     TIME
       %y     tty      TTY
       %z     vsz      VSZ

STANDARD FORMAT SPECIFIERS         top

       Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the
       output format (e.g. with option -o) or to sort the selected processes
       with the GNU-style --sort option.
       For example: ps -eo pid,user,args --sort user
       This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used in
       other implementations of ps.
       The following user-defined format specifiers may contain spaces:
       args, cmd, comm, command, fname, ucmd, ucomm,
       lstart, bsdstart, start.
       Some keywords may not be available for sorting.
       CODE        HEADER    DESCRIPTION
       %cpu        %CPU      cpu utilization of the process in "##.#"
                             format.  Currently, it is the CPU time used
                             divided by the time the process has been
                             running (cputime/realtime ratio), expressed as
                             a percentage.  It will not add up to 100%
                             unless you are lucky.  (alias pcpu).
       %mem        %MEM      ratio of the process's resident set size  to
                             the physical memory on the machine, expressed
                             as a percentage.  (alias pmem).
       args        COMMAND   command with all its arguments as a string.
                             Modifications to the arguments may be shown.
                             The output in this column may contain spaces.
                             A process marked <defunct> is partly dead,
                             waiting to be fully destroyed by its parent.
                             Sometimes the process args will be unavailable;
                             when this happens, ps will instead print the
                             executable name in brackets.  (alias
                             cmd, command).  See also the comm format
                             keyword, the -f option, and the c option.
                             When specified last, this column will extend to
                             the edge of the display.  If ps can not
                             determine display width, as when output is
                             redirected (piped) into a file or another
                             command, the output width is undefined (it may
                             be 80, unlimited, determined by the TERM
                             variable, and so on).  The COLUMNS environment
                             variable or --cols option may be used to
                             exactly determine the width in this case.  The
                             w or -w option may be also be used to adjust
                             width.
       blocked     BLOCKED   mask of the blocked signals, see signal(7).
                             According to the width of the field, a 32 or
                             64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
                             (alias sig_block, sigmask).
       bsdstart    START     time the command started.  If the process was
                             started less than 24 hours ago, the output
                             format is " HH:MM", else it is " Mmm:SS" (where
                             Mmm is the three letters of the month).  See
                             also lstart, start, start_time, and stime.
       bsdtime     TIME      accumulated cpu time, user + system.  The
                             display format is usually "MMM:SS", but can be
                             shifted to the right if the process used more
                             than 999 minutes of cpu time.
       c           C         processor utilization. Currently, this is the
                             integer value of the percent usage over the
                             lifetime of the process.  (see %cpu).
       caught      CAUGHT    mask of the caught signals, see signal(7).
                             According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
                             bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
                             (alias sig_catch, sigcatch).
       cgname      CGNAME    display name of control groups to which the
                             process belongs.
       cgroup      CGROUP    display control groups to which the process
                             belongs.
       class       CLS       scheduling class of the process.  (alias
                             policy, cls).  Field's possible values are:
                                      -   not reported
                                      TS  SCHED_OTHER
                                      FF  SCHED_FIFO
                                      RR  SCHED_RR
                                      B   SCHED_BATCH
                                      ISO SCHED_ISO
                                      IDL SCHED_IDLE
                                      DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
                                      ?   unknown value
       cls         CLS       scheduling class of the process.  (alias
                             policy, cls).  Field's possible values are:
                                      -   not reported
                                      TS  SCHED_OTHER
                                      FF  SCHED_FIFO
                                      RR  SCHED_RR
                                      B   SCHED_BATCH
                                      ISO SCHED_ISO
                                      IDL SCHED_IDLE
                                      DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
                                      ?   unknown value
       cmd         CMD       see args.  (alias args, command).
       comm        COMMAND   command name (only the executable name).
                             Modifications to the command name will not be
                             shown.  A process marked <defunct> is partly
                             dead, waiting to be fully destroyed by its
                             parent.  The output in this column may contain
                             spaces.  (alias ucmd, ucomm).  See also the
                             args format keyword, the -f option, and the c
                             option.
                             When specified last, this column will extend to
                             the edge of the display.  If ps can not
                             determine display width, as when output is
                             redirected (piped) into a file or another
                             command, the output width is undefined (it may
                             be 80, unlimited, determined by the TERM
                             variable, and so on).  The COLUMNS environment
                             variable or --cols option may be used to
                             exactly determine the width in this case.  The
                             w or -w option may be also be used to adjust
                             width.
       command     COMMAND   See args.  (alias args, command).
       cp          CP        per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage.  (see
                             %cpu).
       cputime     TIME      cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]hh:mm:ss" format.
                             (alias time).
       drs         DRS       data resident set size, the amount of physical
                             memory devoted to other than executable code.
       egid        EGID      effective group ID number of the process as a
                             decimal integer.  (alias gid).
       egroup      EGROUP    effective group ID of the process.  This will
                             be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained
                             and the field width permits, or a decimal
                             representation otherwise.  (alias group).
       eip         EIP       instruction pointer.
       esp         ESP       stack pointer.
       etime       ELAPSED   elapsed time since the process was started, in
                             the form [[DD-]hh:]mm:ss.
       etimes      ELAPSED   elapsed time since the process was started, in
                             seconds.
       euid        EUID      effective user ID (alias uid).
       euser       EUSER     effective user name.  This will be the textual
                             user ID, if it can be obtained and the field
                             width permits, or a decimal representation
                             otherwise.  The n option can be used to force
                             the decimal representation.  (alias
                             uname, user).
       f           F         flags associated with the process, see the
                             PROCESS FLAGS section.  (alias flag, flags).
       fgid        FGID      filesystem access group ID.  (alias fsgid).
       fgroup      FGROUP    filesystem access group ID.  This will be the
                             textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the
                             field width permits, or a decimal
                             representation otherwise.  (alias fsgroup).
       flag        F         see f.  (alias f, flags).
       flags       F         see f.  (alias f, flag).
       fname       COMMAND   first 8 bytes of the base name of the process's
                             executable file.  The output in this column may
                             contain spaces.
       fuid        FUID      filesystem access user ID.  (alias fsuid).
       fuser       FUSER     filesystem access user ID.  This will be the
                             textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the
                             field width permits, or a decimal
                             representation otherwise.
       gid         GID       see egid.  (alias egid).
       group       GROUP     see egroup.  (alias egroup).
       ignored     IGNORED   mask of the ignored signals, see signal(7).
                             According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
                             bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
                             (alias sig_ignore, sigignore).
       ipcns       IPCNS     Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       label       LABEL     security label, most commonly used for SELinux
                             context data.  This is for the Mandatory Access
                             Control ("MAC") found on high-security systems.
       lstart      STARTED   time the command started.  See also
                             bsdstart, start, start_time, and stime.
       lsession    SESSION   displays the login session identifier of a
                             process, if systemd support has been included.
       lwp         LWP       light weight process (thread) ID of the
                             dispatchable entity (alias spid, tid).  See tid
                             for additional information.
       lxc         LXC       The name of the lxc container within which a
                             task is running.  If a process is not running
                             inside a container, a dash ('-') will be shown.
       machine     MACHINE   displays the machine name for processes
                             assigned to VM or container, if systemd support
                             has been included.
       maj_flt     MAJFLT    The number of major page faults that have
                             occurred with this process.
       min_flt     MINFLT    The number of minor page faults that have
                             occurred with this process.
       mntns       MNTNS     Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       netns       NETNS     Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       ni          NI        nice value. This ranges from 19 (nicest) to -20
                             (not nice to others), see nice(1).  (alias
                             nice).
       nice        NI        see ni.(alias ni).
       nlwp        NLWP      number of lwps (threads) in the process.
                             (alias thcount).
       numa        NUMA      The node assocated with the most recently used
                             processor.  A -1 means that NUMA information is
                             unavailable.
       nwchan      WCHAN     address of the kernel function where the
                             process is sleeping (use wchan if you want the
                             kernel function name).  Running tasks will
                             display a dash ('-') in this column.
       ouid        OWNER     displays the Unix user identifier of the owner
                             of the session of a process, if systemd support
                             has been included.
       pcpu        %CPU      see %cpu.  (alias %cpu).
       pending     PENDING   mask of the pending signals. See signal(7).
                             Signals pending on the process are distinct
                             from signals pending on individual threads.
                             Use the m option or the -m option to see both.
                             According to the width of the field, a 32 or 64
                             bits mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
                             (alias sig).
       pgid        PGID      process group ID or, equivalently, the process
                             ID of the process group leader.  (alias pgrp).
       pgrp        PGRP      see pgid.  (alias pgid).
       pid         PID       a number representing the process ID (alias
                             tgid).
       pidns       PIDNS     Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       pmem        %MEM      see %mem.  (alias %mem).
       policy      POL       scheduling class of the process.  (alias
                             class, cls).  Possible values are:
                                      -   not reported
                                      TS  SCHED_OTHER
                                      FF  SCHED_FIFO
                                      RR  SCHED_RR
                                      B   SCHED_BATCH
                                      ISO SCHED_ISO
                                      IDL SCHED_IDLE
                                      DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
                                      ?   unknown value
       ppid        PPID      parent process ID.
       pri         PRI       priority of the process.  Higher number means
                             lower priority.
       psr         PSR       processor that process is currently assigned
                             to.
       rgid        RGID      real group ID.
       rgroup      RGROUP    real group name.  This will be the textual
                             group ID, if it can be obtained and the field
                             width permits, or a decimal representation
                             otherwise.
       rss         RSS       resident set size, the non-swapped physical
                             memory that a task has used (in kiloBytes).
                             (alias rssize, rsz).
       rssize      RSS       see rss.  (alias rss, rsz).
       rsz         RSZ       see rss.  (alias rss, rssize).
       rtprio      RTPRIO    realtime priority.
       ruid        RUID      real user ID.
       ruser       RUSER     real user ID.  This will be the textual user
                             ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
                             permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
       s           S         minimal state display (one character).  See
                             section PROCESS STATE CODES for the different
                             values.  See also stat if you want additional
                             information displayed.  (alias state).
       sched       SCH       scheduling policy of the process.  The policies
                             SCHED_OTHER (SCHED_NORMAL), SCHED_FIFO,
                             SCHED_RR, SCHED_BATCH, SCHED_ISO, SCHED_IDLE
                             and SCHED_DEADLINE are respectively displayed
                             as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
       seat        SEAT      displays the identifier associated with all
                             hardware devices assigned to a specific
                             workplace, if systemd support has been
                             included.
       sess        SESS      session ID or, equivalently, the process ID of
                             the session leader.  (alias session, sid).
       sgi_p       P         processor that the process is currently
                             executing on.  Displays "*" if the process is
                             not currently running or runnable.
       sgid        SGID      saved group ID.  (alias svgid).
       sgroup      SGROUP    saved group name.  This will be the textual
                             group ID, if it can be obtained and the field
                             width permits, or a decimal representation
                             otherwise.
       sid         SID       see sess.  (alias sess, session).
       sig         PENDING   see pending.  (alias pending, sig_pend).
       sigcatch    CAUGHT    see caught.  (alias caught, sig_catch).
       sigignore   IGNORED   see ignored.  (alias ignored, sig_ignore).
       sigmask     BLOCKED   see blocked.  (alias blocked, sig_block).
       size        SIZE      approximate amount of swap space that would be
                             required if the process were to dirty all
                             writable pages and then be swapped out.  This
                             number is very rough!
       slice       SLICE     displays the slice unit which a process belongs
                             to, if systemd support has been included.
       spid        SPID      see lwp.  (alias lwp, tid).
       stackp      STACKP    address of the bottom (start) of stack for the
                             process.
       start       STARTED   time the command started.  If the process was
                             started less than 24 hours ago, the output
                             format is "HH:MM:SS", else it is "  Mmm dd"
                             (where Mmm is a three-letter month name).  See
                             also lstart, bsdstart, start_time, and stime.
       start_time  START     starting time or date of the process.  Only the
                             year will be displayed if the process was not
                             started the same year ps was invoked, or
                             "MmmDD" if it was not started the same day, or
                             "HH:MM" otherwise.  See also
                             bsdstart, start, lstart, and stime.
       stat        STAT      multi-character process state.  See section
                             PROCESS STATE CODES for the different values
                             meaning.  See also s and state if you just want
                             the first character displayed.
       state       S         see s. (alias s).
       suid        SUID      saved user ID.  (alias svuid).
       supgid      SUPGID    group ids of supplementary groups, if any.  See
                             getgroups(2).
       supgrp      SUPGRP    group names of supplementary groups, if any.
                             See getgroups(2).
       suser       SUSER     saved user name.  This will be the textual user
                             ID, if it can be obtained and the field width
                             permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
                             (alias svuser).
       svgid       SVGID     see sgid.  (alias sgid).
       svuid       SVUID     see suid.  (alias suid).
       sz          SZ        size in physical pages of the core image of the
                             process.  This includes text, data, and stack
                             space.  Device mappings are currently excluded;
                             this is subject to change.  See vsz and rss.
       tgid        TGID      a number representing the thread group to which
                             a task belongs (alias pid).  It is the process
                             ID of the thread group leader.
       thcount     THCNT     see nlwp.  (alias nlwp).  number of kernel
                             threads owned by the process.
       tid         TID       the unique number representing a dispatchable
                             entity (alias lwp, spid).  This value may also
                             appear as: a process ID (pid); a process group
                             ID (pgrp); a session ID for the session leader
                             (sid); a thread group ID for the thread group
                             leader (tgid); and a tty process group ID for
                             the process group leader (tpgid).
       time        TIME      cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]HH:MM:SS" format.
                             (alias cputime).
       tname       TTY       controlling tty (terminal).  (alias tt, tty).
       tpgid       TPGID     ID of the foreground process group on the tty
                             (terminal) that the process is connected to, or
                             -1 if the process is not connected to a tty.
       trs         TRS       text resident set size, the amount of physical
                             memory devoted to executable code.
       tt          TT        controlling tty (terminal).  (alias
                             tname, tty).
       tty         TT        controlling tty (terminal).  (alias tname, tt).
       ucmd        CMD       see comm.  (alias comm, ucomm).
       ucomm       COMMAND   see comm.  (alias comm, ucmd).
       uid         UID       see euid.  (alias euid).
       uname       USER      see euser.  (alias euser, user).
       unit        UNIT      displays unit which a process belongs to, if
                             systemd support has been included.
       user        USER      see euser.  (alias euser, uname).
       userns      USERNS    Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       utsns       UTSNS     Unique inode number describing the namespace
                             the process belongs to. See namespaces(7).
       uunit       UUNIT     displays user unit which a process belongs to,
                             if systemd support has been included.
       vsize       VSZ       see vsz.  (alias vsz).
       vsz         VSZ       virtual memory size of the process in KiB
                             (1024-byte units).  Device mappings are
                             currently excluded; this is subject to change.
                             (alias vsize).
       wchan       WCHAN     name of the kernel function in which the
                             process is sleeping, a "-" if the process is
                             running, or a "*" if the process is
                             multi-threaded and ps is not displaying
                             threads.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       The following environment variables could affect ps:
       COLUMNS
          Override default display width.
       LINES
          Override default display height.
       PS_PERSONALITY
          Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital...  (see
          section PERSONALITY below).
       CMD_ENV
          Set to one of posix, old, linux, bsd, sun, digital...  (see
          section PERSONALITY below).
       I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS
          Force obsolete command line interpretation.
       LC_TIME
          Date format.
       PS_COLORS
          Not currently supported.
       PS_FORMAT
          Default output format override. You may set this to a format
          string of the type used for the -o option.  The DefSysV and DefBSD
          values are particularly useful.
       POSIXLY_CORRECT
          Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
       POSIX2
          When set to "on", acts as POSIXLY_CORRECT.
       UNIX95
          Don't find excuses to ignore bad "features".
       _XPG
          Cancel CMD_ENV=irix non-standard behavior.
       In general, it is a bad idea to set these variables.  The one
       exception is CMD_ENV or PS_PERSONALITY, which could be set to Linux
       for normal systems.  Without that setting, ps follows the useless and
       bad parts of the Unix98 standard.

PERSONALITY         top

       390        like the OS/390 OpenEdition ps
       aix        like AIX ps
       bsd        like FreeBSD ps (totally non-standard)
       compaq     like Digital Unix ps
       debian     like the old Debian ps
       digital    like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
       gnu        like the old Debian ps
       hp         like HP-UX ps
       hpux       like HP-UX ps
       irix       like Irix ps
       linux      ***** recommended *****
       old        like the original Linux ps (totally non-standard)
       os390      like OS/390 Open Edition ps
       posix      standard
       s390       like OS/390 Open Edition ps
       sco        like SCO ps
       sgi        like Irix ps
       solaris2   like Solaris 2+ (SunOS 5) ps
       sunos4     like SunOS 4 (Solaris 1) ps (totally non-standard)
       svr4       standard
       sysv       standard
       tru64      like Tru64 (was Digital Unix, was OSF/1) ps
       unix       standard
       unix95     standard
       unix98     standard

SEE ALSO         top

       pgrep(1), pstree(1), top(1), proc(5).

STANDARDS         top

       This ps conforms to:
       1   Version 2 of the Single Unix Specification
       2   The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 6
       3   IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
       4   X/Open System Interfaces Extension [UP XSI]
       5   ISO/IEC 9945:2003

AUTHOR         top

       ps was originally written by Branko Lankester ⟨lankeste@fwi.uva.nl⟩.
       Michael K. Johnson ⟨johnsonm@redhat.com⟩ re-wrote it significantly to
       use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the process.
       Michael Shields ⟨mjshield@nyx.cs.du.edu⟩ added the pid-list feature.
       Charles Blake ⟨cblake@bbn.com⟩ added multi-level sorting, the
       dirent-style library, the device name-to-number mmaped database, the
       approximate binary search directly on System.map, and many code and
       documentation cleanups.  David Mossberger-Tang wrote the generic BFD
       support for psupdate.  Albert Cahalan ⟨albert@users.sf.net⟩ rewrote
       ps for full Unix98 and BSD support, along with some ugly hacks for
       obsolete and foreign syntax.
       Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩.  No subscription
       is required or suggested.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the procps-ng (/proc filesystem utilities)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, see 
       ⟨https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps/blob/master/Documentation/bugs.md⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps.git⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you dis‐
       cover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
       you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
procps-ng                         May 2017                             PS(1)

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