ps(1) User Commands ps(1)NAMEps - report process status
SYNOPSISps [-aAcdefjHlLPyZ] [-g grplist] [-h lgrplist]
[-n namelist] [-o format]... [-p proclist]
[-s sidlist] [-t term] [-u uidlist] [-U uidlist]
[-G gidlist] [-z zonelist]
DESCRIPTION
The ps command prints information about active processes. Without
options, ps prints information about processes that have the same
effective user ID and the same controlling terminal as the invoker. The
output contains only the process ID, terminal identifier, cumulative
execution time, and the command name. Otherwise, the information that
is displayed is controlled by the options.
Some options accept lists as arguments. Items in a list can be either
separated by commas or else enclosed in quotes and separated by commas
or spaces. Values for proclist and grplist must be numeric.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a Lists information about all processes most frequently
requested: all those except session leaders and pro‐
cesses not associated with a terminal.
-A Lists information for all processes. Identical to -e,
below.
-c Prints information in a format that reflects scheduler
properties as described in priocntl(1). The -c option
affects the output of the -f and -l options, as
described below.
-d Lists information about all processes except session
leaders.
-e Lists information about every process now running.
When the -eoption is specified, options -z, -t, -u, -U,
-g, -G, -p, -g, -s and -a options have no effect.
-f Generates a full listing. (See below for significance of
columns in a full listing.)
-g grplist Lists only process data whose group leader's ID num‐
ber(s) appears in grplist. (A group leader is a process
whose process ID number is identical to its process
group ID number.)
-G gidlist Lists information for processes whose real group ID num‐
bers are given in gidlist. The gidlist must be a single
argument in the form of a blank- or comma-separated
list.
-h lgrplist Lists only the processes homed to the specified lgr‐
plist. Nothing is listed for any invalid group specified
in lgrplist.
-H Prints the home lgroup of the process under an addi‐
tional column header, LGRP.
-j Prints session ID and process group ID.
-l Generates a long listing. (See below.)
-L Prints information about each light weight process (lwp)
in each selected process. (See below.)
-n namelist Specifies the name of an alternative system namelist
file in place of the default. This option is accepted
for compatibility, but is ignored.
-o format Prints information according to the format specification
given in format. This is fully described in DISPLAY FOR‐
MATS. Multiple -o options can be specified; the format
specification is interpreted as the space-character-sep‐
arated concatenation of all the format option-arguments.
-p proclist Lists only process data whose process ID numbers are
given in proclist.
-P Prints the number of the processor to which the process
or lwp is bound, if any, under an additional column
header, PSR.
-s sidlist Lists information on all session leaders whose IDs
appear in sidlist.
-t term Lists only process data associated with term. Terminal
identifiers are specified as a device file name, and an
identifier. For example, term/a, or pts/0.
-u uidlist Lists only process data whose effective user ID number
or login name is given in uidlist. In the listing, the
numerical user ID is printed unless you give the -f
option, which prints the login name.
-U uidlist Lists information for processes whose real user ID num‐
bers or login names are given in uidlist. The uidlist
must be a single argument in the form of a blank- or
comma-separated list.
-y Under a long listing (-l), omits the obsolete F and ADDR
columns and includes an RSS column to report the resi‐
dent set size of the process. Under the -y option, both
RSS and SZ (see below) is reported in units of kilobytes
instead of pages.
-z zonelist Lists only processes in the specified zones. Zones can
be specified either by name or ID. This option is only
useful when executed in the global zone.
-Z Prints the name of the zone with which the process is
associated under an additional column header, ZONE. The
ZONE column width is limited to 8 characters. Use ps-eZ
for a quick way to see information about every process
now running along with the associated zone name. Use
ps-eo zone,uid,pid,ppid,time,comm,...
to see zone names wider than 8 characters.
Many of the options shown are used to select processes to list. If any
are specified, the default list is ignored and ps selects the processes
represented by the inclusive OR of all the selection-criteria options.
DISPLAY FORMATS
Under the -f option, ps tries to determine the command name and argu‐
ments given when the process was created by examining the user block.
Failing this, the command name is printed, as it would have appeared
without the -f option, in square brackets.
The column headings and the meaning of the columns in a ps listing are
given below; the letters f and l indicate the option (full or long,
respectively) that causes the corresponding heading to appear; all
means that the heading always appears. Note: These two options deter‐
mine only what information is provided for a process; they do not
determine which processes are listed.
F(l) Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with the
process. These flags are available for historical pur‐
poses; no meaning should be currently ascribed to them.
S (l) The state of the process:
O Process is running on a processor.
S Sleeping: process is waiting for an event to com‐
plete.
R Runnable: process is on run queue.
T Process is stopped, either by a job control signal
or because it is being traced.
W Waiting: process is waiting for CPU usage to drop to
the CPU-caps enforced limits.
Z Zombie state: process terminated and parent not
waiting.
UID (f,l) The effective user ID number of the process (the login
name is printed under the -f option).
PID(all) The process ID of the process (this datum is necessary in
order to kill a process).
PPID(f,l) The process ID of the parent process.
C(f,l) Processor utilization for scheduling (obsolete). Not
printed when the -c option is used.
CLS(f,l) Scheduling class. Printed only when the -c option is
used.
PRI(l) The priority of the process. Without the -c option,
higher numbers mean lower priority. With the -c option,
higher numbers mean higher priority.
NI(l) Nice value, used in priority computation. Not printed
when the -c option is used. Only processes in the certain
scheduling classes have a nice value.
ADDR(l) The memory address of the process.
SZ(l) The total size of the process in virtual memory, includ‐
ing all mapped files and devices, in pages. See page‐
size(1).
WCHAN(l) The address of an event for which the process is sleeping
(if blank, the process is running).
STIME(f) The starting time of the process, given in hours, min‐
utes, and seconds. (A process begun more than twenty-four
hours before the ps inquiry is executed is given in
months and days.)
TTY(all) The controlling terminal for the process (the message, ?,
is printed when there is no controlling terminal).
TIME(all) The cumulative execution time for the process.
LTIME(all) The execution time for the lwp being reported.
CMD(all) The command name (the full command name and its argu‐
ments, up to a limit of 80 characters, are printed under
the -f option).
The following two additional columns are printed when the -j option is
specified:
PGID The process ID of the process group leader.
SID The process ID of the session leader.
The following two additional columns are printed when the -L option is
specified:
LWP The lwp ID of the lwp being reported.
NLWP The number of lwps in the process (if -f is also specified).
Under the -L option, one line is printed for each lwp in the process
and the time-reporting fields STIME and LTIME show the values for the
lwp, not the process. A traditional single-threaded process contains
only one lwp.
A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been waited
for by the parent, is marked <defunct>.
-o format
The -o option allows the output format to be specified under user con‐
trol.
The format specification must be a list of names presented as a single
argument, blank- or comma-separated. Each variable has a default
header. The default header can be overridden by appending an equals
sign and the new text of the header. The rest of the characters in the
argument is used as the header text. The fields specified are written
in the order specified on the command line, and should be arranged in
columns in the output. The field widths are selected by the system to
be at least as wide as the header text (default or overridden value).
If the header text is null, such as -o user=, the field width is at
least as wide as the default header text. If all header text fields are
null, no header line is written.
The following names are recognized in the POSIX locale:
user The effective user ID of the process. This is the textual
user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits,
or a decimal representation otherwise.
ruser The real user ID of the process. This is the textual user ID,
if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a deci‐
mal representation otherwise.
group The effective group ID of the process. This is the textual
group ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits,
or a decimal representation otherwise.
rgroup The real group ID of the process. This is the textual group
ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a
decimal representation otherwise.
pid The decimal value of the process ID.
ppid The decimal value of the parent process ID.
pgid The decimal value of the process group ID.
pcpu The ratio of CPU time used recently to CPU time available in
the same period, expressed as a percentage. The meaning of
``recently'' in this context is unspecified. The CPU time
available is determined in an unspecified manner.
vsz The total size of the process in virtual memory, in kilo‐
bytes.
nice The decimal value of the system scheduling priority of the
process. See nice(1).
etime In the POSIX locale, the elapsed time since the process was
started, in the form:
[[dd-]hh:]mm:ss
where
dd is the number of days
hh is the number of hours
mm is the number of minutes
ss is the number of seconds
The dd field is a decimal integer. The hh, mm and ss fields
is two-digit decimal integers padded on the left with zeros.
time In the POSIX locale, the cumulative CPU time of the process
in the form:
[dd-]hh:mm:ss
The dd, hh, mm, and ss fields is as described in the etime
specifier.
tty The name of the controlling terminal of the process (if any)
in the same format used by the who(1) command.
comm The name of the command being executed (argv[0] value) as a
string.
args The command with all its arguments as a string. The implemen‐
tation might truncate this value to the field width; it is
implementation-dependent whether any further truncation
occurs. It is unspecified whether the string represented is a
version of the argument list as it was passed to the command
when it started, or is a version of the arguments as they
might have been modified by the application. Applications
cannot depend on being able to modify their argument list and
having that modification be reflected in the output of ps.
The Solaris implementation limits the string to 80 bytes; the
string is the version of the argument list as it was passed
to the command when it started.
The following names are recognized in the Solaris implementation:
f Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with the
process.
s The state of the process.
c Processor utilization for scheduling (obsolete).
uid The effective user ID number of the process as a decimal
integer.
ruid The real user ID number of the process as a decimal integer.
gid The effective group ID number of the process as a decimal
integer.
rgid The real group ID number of the process as a decimal inte‐
ger.
projid The project ID number of the process as a decimal integer.
project The project ID of the process as a textual value if that
value can be obtained; otherwise, as a decimal integer.
zoneid The zone ID number of the process as a decimal integer.
zone The zone ID of the process as a textual value if that value
can be obtained; otherwise, as a decimal integer.
sid The process ID of the session leader.
taskid The task ID of the process.
class The scheduling class of the process.
pri The priority of the process. Higher numbers mean higher pri‐
ority.
opri The obsolete priority of the process. Lower numbers mean
higher priority.
lwp The decimal value of the lwp ID. Requesting this formatting
option causes one line to be printed for each lwp in the
process.
nlwp The number of lwps in the process.
psr The number of the processor to which the process or lwp is
bound.
pset The ID of the processor set to which the process or lwp is
bound.
addr The memory address of the process.
osz The total size of the process in virtual memory, in pages.
wchan The address of an event for which the process is sleeping
(if −, the process is running).
stime The starting time or date of the process, printed with no
blanks.
rss The resident set size of the process, in kilobytes. The rss
value reported by ps is an estimate provided by proc(4) that
might underestimate the actual resident set size. Users who
wish to get more accurate usage information for capacity
planning should use pmap(1)-x instead.
pmem The ratio of the process's resident set size to the physical
memory on the machine, expressed as a percentage.
fname The first 8 bytes of the base name of the process's exe‐
cutable file.
ctid The contract ID of the process contract the process is a
member of as a decimal integer.
lgrp The home lgroup of the process.
Only comm and args are allowed to contain blank characters; all others,
including the Solaris implementation variables, are not.
The following table specifies the default header to be used in the
POSIX locale corresponding to each format specifier.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Format Default Format Default │
│ Specifier Header Specifier Header │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ args COMMAND ppid PPID │
│ comm COMMAND rgroup RGROUP │
│ etime ELAPSED ruser RUSER │
│ group GROUP time TIME │
│ nice NI tty TT │
│ pcpu %CPU user USER │
│ pgid PGID vsz VSZ │
│ pid PID │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The following table lists the Solaris implementation format specifiers
and the default header used with each.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Format Default Format Default │
│ Specifier Header Specifier Header │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ addr ADDR projid PROJID │
│ c C project PROJECT │
│ class CLS psr PSR │
│ f F rgid RGID │
│ fname COMMAND rss RSS │
│ gid GID ruid RUID │
│ lgrp LGRP s S │
│ lwp LWP sid SID │
│ nlwp NLWP stime STIME │
│ opri PRI taskid TASKID │
│ osz SZ uid UID │
│ pmem %MEM wchan WCHAN │
│ pri PRI zone ZONE │
│ ctid CTID zoneid ZONEID │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Using ps Command
The command:
example% ps-o user,pid,ppid=MOM -o args
writes the following in the POSIX locale:
USER PID MOM COMMAND
helene 34 12 ps-o uid,pid,ppid=MOM -o args
The contents of the COMMAND field need not be the same due to possible
truncation.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of ps: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
LC_TIME, and NLSPATH.
COLUMNS Override the system-selected horizontal screen size, used to
determine the number of text columns to display.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
FILES
/dev/pts/*
/dev/term/* terminal (``tty'') names searcher files
/etc/passwd UID information supplier
/proc/* process control files
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcs │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│CSI │Enabled (see USAGE) │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Committed │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Standard │See standards(5). │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOkill(1), lgrpinfo(1), nice(1), pagesize(1), pmap(1), priocntl(1),
who(1), getty(1M), proc(4), ttysrch(4), attributes(5), environ(5),
resource_controls(5), standards(5), zones(5)NOTES
Things can change while ps is running. The snapshot it gives is true
only for a split-second, and it might not be accurate by the time you
see it. Some data printed for defunct processes is irrelevant.
If no options to select processes are specified, ps reports all pro‐
cesses associated with the controlling terminal. If there is no con‐
trolling terminal, there is no report other than the header.
ps-ef or ps-o stime might not report the actual start of a tty login
session, but rather an earlier time, when a getty was last respawned on
the tty line.
ps is CSI-enabled except for login names (usernames).
SunOS 5.11 16 Aug 2009 ps(1)
