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.