ps(1)
NAME
ps - process status
SYNOPSIS
ps [-alxU] [kernel mm fs]
OPTIONS
-a Print all processes with controlling terminals
-l Give long listing
-x Include processes without a terminal
EXAMPLES
ps -axl # Print all processes and tasks in long format
DESCRIPTION
Ps prints the status of active processes. Normally only the caller's own
processes are listed in short format (the PID, TTY, TIME and CMD fields
as explained below). The long listing contains:
F Kernel flags:
001: free slot
002: no memory map
004: sending;
010: receiving
020: inform on pending signals
040: pending signals
100: being traced.
S
State:
R: runnable
W: waiting (on a message)
S: sleeping (i.e.,suspended on MM or FS)
Z: zombie
T: stopped
UID, PID, PPID, PGRP
The user, process, parent process and process group ID's.
SZ
Size of the process in kilobytes.
RECV
Process/task on which a receiving process is waiting or sleeping.
TTY
Controlling tty for the process.
TIME
Process' cumulative (user + system) execution time.
CMD Command line arguments of the process.
The files /dev/{mem,kmem} are used to read the system tables and command
line arguments from. Terminal names in /dev are used to generate the
mnemonic names in the TTY column, so ps is independent of terminal naming
conventions.