PS(1)                      OpenBSD Reference Manual                      PS(1)

NAME
     ps - display process status

SYNOPSIS
     ps [-aCcehjkLlmrSTuvwx] [-M core] [-N system] [-O fmt] [-o fmt] [-p pid]
        [-t tty] [-U username] [-W swap]

DESCRIPTION
     The ps utility displays information about active processes.  When given
     no options, ps prints information about processes of the current user
     that have a controlling terminal.

     The information displayed is selected based on a set of keywords (and for
     even more control, see the -L, -O, and -o options).  The default output
     format includes, for each process, the process's ID, controlling termi-
     nal, CPU time (including both user and system time), state, and associat-
     ed command.

     The options are as follows:

     -a      Display information about other users' processes as well as your
             own.

     -C      Change the way the CPU percentage is calculated by using a
             ``raw'' CPU calculation that ignores ``resident'' time (this nor-
             mally has no effect).

     -c      Do not display full command with arguments, but only the exe-
             cutable name.  This may be somewhat confusing; for example, all
             sh(1) scripts will show as ``sh''.

     -e      Display the environment as well.

     -h      Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee
             one header per page of information.

     -j      Print information associated with the following keywords: user,
             pid, ppid, pgid, sess, jobc, state, tt, time, and command.

     -k      Also display information about kernel threads.

     -L      List the set of available keywords.  This option should not be
             specified with other options.

     -l      Display information associated with the following keywords: uid,
             pid, ppid, cpu, pri, nice, vsz, rss, wchan, state, tt, time, and
             command.

     -M core
             Extract values associated with the name list from the specified
             core instead of the running kernel.

     -m      Sort by memory usage, instead of by start time ID.

     -N system
             Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the
             running kernel.

     -O fmt  Add the information associated with the space or comma separated
             list of keywords specified, after the process ID, in the default
             information display.  Keywords may be appended with an equals
             sign (`=') and a string.  This causes the printed header to use
             the specified string instead of the standard header.

     -o fmt  Display information associated with the space or comma separated
             list of keywords specified.  Keywords may be appended with an
             equals sign (`=') and a string.  This causes the printed header
             to use the specified string instead of the standard header.

     -p pid  Display information associated with the specified process ID.

     -r      Sort by current CPU usage, instead of by start time ID.

     -S      Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all ex-
             ited children to their parent process.

     -T      Display information about processes attached to the device asso-
             ciated with the standard input.

     -t tty  Display information about processes attached to the specified
             terminal device.

     -U username
             Display the processes belonging to the specified username.

     -u      Display information associated with the following keywords: user,
             pid, %cpu, %mem, vsz, rss, tt, state, start, time, and command.
             The -u option implies the -r option.

     -v      Display information associated with the following keywords: pid,
             state, time, sl, re, pagein, vsz, rss, lim, tsiz, %cpu, %mem, and
             command.  The -v option implies the -m option.

     -W swap
             When not using the running kernel, extract swap information from
             the specified file.

     -w      Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default,
             which is the window size.  If the -w option is specified more
             than once, ps will use as many columns as necessary without re-
             gard for window size.

     -x      Display information about processes without controlling termi-
             nals.

     The ps utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

KEYWORDS
     The following is a complete list of the available keywords and their
     meanings.  Several of them have aliases, which are also noted.

        %cpu         Alias: pcpu.  The CPU utilization of the process; this is
                     a decaying average over up to a minute of previous (real)
                     time.  Since the time base over which this is computed
                     varies (since processes may be very young) it is possible
                     for the sum of all %cpu fields to exceed 100%.

        %mem         Alias: pmem.  The percentage of real memory used by this
                     process.

        acflag       Alias: acflg.  Accounting flag.

        command      Alias: args.  Command and arguments.

        cpu          Short-term CPU usage factor (for scheduling).

        cpuid        CPU ID (zero on single processor systems).

        dsiz         Data size, in Kilobytes.

        emul         Name of system call emulation environment.

        flags        Alias: f.  The flags (in hexadecimal) associated with the
                     process as in the include file <sys/proc.h>:

                     P_CONTROLT 0x0000002  process has a controlling terminal
                     P_NOCLDSTOP 0x0000008 no SIGCHLD when children stop
                     P_PPWAIT 0x0000010    parent is waiting for child to
                                           exec/exit
                     P_PROFIL 0x0000020    process has started profiling
                     P_SELECT 0x0000040    selecting; wakeup/waiting danger
                     P_SINTR 0x0000080     sleep is interruptible
                     P_SUGID 0x0000100     process had set ID privileges since
                                           last exec
                     P_SYSTEM 0x0000200    system process: no sigs, stats, or
                                           swapping
                     P_TIMEOUT 0x0000400   timing out during sleep
                     P_TRACED 0x0000800    process is being traced
                     P_WAITED 0x0001000   debugging process has waited for child
                     P_WEXIT 0x0002000     working on exiting
                     P_EXEC 0x0004000      process called exec(3)
                     P_OWEUPC 0x0008000    owe process an addupc() call at next
                                           ast
                     P_SSTEP 0x0020000     process needs single-step fixup
                     P_SUGIDEXEC 0x0040000 last exec(3) was set[ug]id
                     P_NOCLDWAIT 0x0080000 let pid 1 wait for my children
                     P_NOZOMBIE 0x0100000  pid 1 waits for me instead of dad
                     P_INEXEC 0x0200000    process is doing an exec right now
                     P_SYSTRACE 0x0400000  process system call tracing is active

        gid          Effective group.

        group        Text name of effective group ID.

        inblk        Alias: inblock.  Total blocks read.

        jobc         Job control count.

        ktrace       Tracing flags.

        ktracep      Tracing vnode.

        lim          The soft limit on memory used, specified via a call to
                     setrlimit(2).

        logname      Alias: login.  Login name of user who started the pro-
                     cess.

        lstart       The exact time the command started, using the ``%c'' for-
                     mat described in strftime(3).

        majflt       Total page faults.

        minflt       Total page reclaims.

        msgrcv       Total messages received (reads from pipes/sockets).

        msgsnd       Total messages sent (writes on pipes/sockets).

        nice         Alias: ni.  The process scheduling increment (see
                     setpriority(2)).

        nivcsw       Total involuntary context switches.

        nsigs        Alias: nsignals.  Total signals taken.

        nswap        Total swaps in/out.

        nvcsw        Total voluntary context switches.

        nwchan       Wait channel (as an address).

        oublk        Alias: oublock.  Total blocks written.

        p_ru         Resource usage (valid only for zombie processes).

        paddr        Swap address.

        pagein       Pageins (same as majflt).

        pgid         Process group number.

        pid          Process ID.

        ppid         Parent process ID.

        pri          Scheduling priority.

        re           Core residency time (in seconds; 127 = infinity).

        rgid         Real group ID.

        rgroup       Text name of real group ID.

        rlink        Reverse link on run queue, or 0.

        rss          The real memory (resident set) size of the process (in
                     1024 byte units).

        rsz          Alias: rssize.  Resident set size + (text size / text use
                     count).

        ruid         Real user ID.

        ruser        User name (from ruid).

        sess         Session pointer.

        sig          Alias: pending.  Pending signals.

        sigcatch     Alias: caught.  Caught signals.

        sigignore    Alias: ignored.  Ignored signals.

        sigmask      Alias: blocked.  Blocked signals.

        sl           Sleep time (in seconds; 127 = infinity).

        ssiz         Stack size, in Kilobytes.

        start        Alias: etime.  The time the command started.  If the com-
                     mand started less than 24 hours ago, the start time is
                     displayed using the ``%l:%M%p'' format described in
                     strftime(3).  If the command started less than 7 days
                     ago, the start time is displayed using the ``%a%I%p''
                     format.  Otherwise, the start time is displayed using the
                     ``%e%b%y'' format.

        state        Alias: stat.  The state is given by a sequence of let-
                     ters, for example, ``RWN''.  The first letter indicates
                     the run state of the process:

                     D       Marks a process in disk (or other short term, un-
                             interruptible) wait.
                     I       Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer
                             than about 20 seconds).
                     R       Marks a runnable process.
                     S       Marks a process that is sleeping for less than
                             about 20 seconds.
                     T       Marks a stopped process.
                     Z       Marks a dead process (a ``zombie'').

                     Additional characters after these, if any, indicate addi-
                     tional state information:

                     +       The process is in the foreground process group of
                             its control terminal.
                     <       The process has a raised CPU scheduling priority
                             (see setpriority(2)).
                     >       The process has specified a soft limit on memory
                             requirements and is currently exceeding that lim-
                             it; such a process is (necessarily) not swapped.
                     E       The process is trying to exit.
                     K       The process is a kernel thread.
                     N       The process has a reduced CPU scheduling priori-
                             ty.
                     s       The process is a session leader.
                     V       The process is suspended during a vfork(2).
                     X       The process is being traced or debugged.
                     x       The process is being monitored by systrace(1).
                     /n      On multiprocessor machines, specifies processor
                             number n.

        svgid        Saved GID from a setgid executable.

        svuid        Saved UID from a setuid executable.

        tdev         Control terminal device number.

        time         Alias: cputime.  Accumulated CPU time, user + system.

        tpgid        Control terminal process group ID.

        tsess        Control terminal session pointer.

        tsiz         Text size, in Kilobytes.

        tt           An abbreviation for the pathname of the controlling ter-
                     minal, if any.  The abbreviation consists of the two let-
                     ters following ``/dev/tty'', or, for the console, ``co''.
                     This is followed by a `-' if the process can no longer
                     reach that controlling terminal (i.e. it has been re-
                     voked).

        tty          Full name of control terminal.

        ucomm        Alias: comm.  Name to be used for accounting.

        uid          Effective user ID.

        upr          Alias: usrpri.  Scheduling priority on return from system
                     call.

        user         User name (from uid).

        vsz          Alias: vsize.  Virtual size, in Kilobytes.

        wchan        The event (an address in the system) on which a process
                     waits.  When printed numerically, the initial part of the
                     address is trimmed off and the result is printed in hex;
                     for example, 0x80324000 prints as 324000.

        xstat        Exit or stop status (valid only for stopped or zombie
                     process).

FILES
     /dev                   special files and device names
     /var/db/kvm_bsd.db     system namelist database
     /var/run/dev.db        /dev name database

EXAMPLES
     Display information on all system processes:

           $ ps -auxw

SEE ALSO
     fstat(1), kill(1), netstat(1), pgrep(1), pkill(1), procmap(1), systat(1),
     top(1), w(1), kvm(3), strftime(3), dev_mkdb(8), iostat(8), pstat(8),
     vmstat(8)

STANDARDS
     The ps utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
     specification.

     The flags [-CchjkLMmNOrST] are extensions to that specification.

     Behaviour for the -e flag differs between this implementation and IEEE
     Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'').

HISTORY
     A ps command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX in section 8 of the manual.

CAVEATS
     When printing using the command keyword, a process that has exited and
     has a parent that has not yet waited for the process (in other words, a
     zombie) is listed as ``<defunct>'', and a process which is blocked while
     trying to exit is listed as ``<exiting>''.  ps makes an educated guess as
     to the file name and arguments given when the process was created by ex-
     amining memory or the swap area.  The method is inherently somewhat unre-
     liable and in any event a process is entitled to destroy this informa-
     tion, so the names cannot be depended on too much.  The ucomm (account-
     ing) keyword can, however, be depended on.

BUGS
     Since ps cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other sched-
     uled process, the information it displays can never be exact.

OpenBSD 4.7                    February 8, 2009                              6
