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help page:  ps


NAME
  ps - display process status information

SYNOPSIS
  ps [-k|-u][-s][-p|-c|-t] [pid | taskp | command] ...

DESCRIPTION
  This command displays process status for selected, or all, processes
  in the system.  If no arguments are entered, the process data is
  is displayed for all processes.  Selected process identifiers can be
  entered in the following forms:

       pid  a process PID.
     taskp  a hexadecimal task_struct pointer.
   command  a command name.  If a command name is made up of letters that
            are all numerical values, precede the name string with a "\".
        -k  select all kernel threads.
        -u  select all user tasks.
 
  The process identifier types may be mixed.  For each task, the following
  items are displayed:
 
    1. the process PID.
    2. the parent process PID.
    3. the CPU number that the task ran on last.
    4. the task_struct address or the kernel stack pointer of the process.
       (see -s option below)
    5. the task state (RU, IN, UN, ZO, ST, DE, SW).
    6. the percentage of physical memory being used by this task.
    7. the virtual address size of this task in kilobytes.
    8. the resident set size of this task in kilobytes.
    9. the command name.
 
  The default output shows the task_struct address of each process under a
  column titled "TASK".  This can be changed to show the kernel stack 
  pointer under a column titled "KSTACKP".
 
       -s  replace the TASK column with the KSTACKP column.
 
  On SMP machines, the active task on each CPU will be highlighted by an
  angle bracket (">") preceding its information.
 
  Alternatively, information regarding parent-child relationships, or
  per-task time usage data may be displayed:
 
       -p  display the parental hierarchy of selected, or all, tasks.
       -c  display the children of selected, or all, tasks.
       -t  display the task run time, start time, and cumulative user
           and system times.

EXAMPLES
  Show the process status of all current tasks:

    crash> ps
       PID    PPID  CPU   TASK    ST  %MEM   VSZ   RSS  COMM
    >     0      0   3  c024c000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
    >     0      0   0  c0dce000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
          0      0   1  c0fa8000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
    >     0      0   2  c009a000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
          1      0   1  c0098000  IN   0.0  1096   476  init
          2      1   1  c0090000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kflushd]
          3      1   1  c000e000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kpiod]
          4      1   3  c000c000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kswapd]
          5      1   1  c0008000  IN   0.0     0     0  [mdrecoveryd]
        253      1   2  fbc4c000  IN   0.0  1088   376  portmap
        268      1   2  fbc82000  IN   0.1  1232   504  ypbind
        274    268   2  fa984000  IN   0.1  1260   556  ypbind
        321      1   1  fabf6000  IN   0.1  1264   608  syslogd
        332      1   1  fa9be000  RU   0.1  1364   736  klogd
        346      1   2  fae88000  IN   0.0  1112   472  atd
        360      1   2  faeb2000  IN   0.1  1284   592  crond
        378      1   2  fafd6000  IN   0.1  1236   560  inetd
        392      1   0  fb710000  IN   0.1  2264  1468  named
        406      1   3  fb768000  IN   0.1  1284   560  lpd
        423      1   1  fb8ac000  IN   0.1  1128   528  rpc.statd
        434      1   2  fb75a000  IN   0.0  1072   376  rpc.rquotad
        445      1   2  fb4a4000  IN   0.0  1132   456  rpc.mountd
        460      1   1  fa938000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        461      1   1  faa86000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        462      1   0  fac48000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        463      1   0  fb4ca000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        464      1   0  fb4c8000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        465      1   2  fba6e000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        466      1   1  fba6c000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        467      1   2  fac04000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        468    461   2  fa93a000  IN   0.0     0     0  [lockd]
        469    468   2  fa93e000  IN   0.0     0     0  [rpciod]
        486      1   0  fab54000  IN   0.1  1596   880  amd
        523      1   2  fa84e000  IN   0.1  1884  1128  sendmail
        538      1   0  fa82c000  IN   0.0  1112   416  gpm
        552      1   3  fa70a000  IN   0.1  2384  1220  httpd
        556    552   3  fa776000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        557    552   2  faba4000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        558    552   1  fa802000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        559    552   3  fa6ee000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        560    552   3  fa700000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        561    552   0  fa6f0000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        562    552   3  fa6ea000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        563    552   0  fa67c000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        564    552   3  fa674000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        565    552   3  fa66a000  IN   0.1  2572  1352  httpd
        582      1   2  fa402000  IN   0.2  2968  1916  xfs
        633      1   2  fa1ec000  IN   0.2  5512  2248  innd
        636      1   3  fa088000  IN   0.1  2536   804  actived
        676      1   0  fa840000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        677      1   1  fa590000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        678      1   2  fa3b8000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        679      1   0  fa5b8000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        680      1   1  fa3a4000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        681      1   2  fa30a000  IN   0.0  1060   384  mingetty
        683      1   3  fa5d8000  IN   0.0  1052   280  update
        686    378   1  fa3aa000  IN   0.1  2320  1136  in.rlogind
        687    686   2  f9e52000  IN   0.1  2136  1000  login
        688    687   0  f9dec000  IN   0.1  1732   976  bash
    >   700    688   1  f9d62000  RU   0.0  1048   256  gen12
 
  Display the parental hierarchy of the "crash" process on a live system:

    crash> ps -p 4249
    PID: 0      TASK: c0252000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "swapper"
     PID: 1      TASK: c009a000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "init"
      PID: 632    TASK: c73b6000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "prefdm"
       PID: 637    TASK: c5a4a000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "prefdm"
        PID: 649    TASK: c179a000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "kwm"
         PID: 683    TASK: c1164000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "kfm"
          PID: 1186   TASK: c165a000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "xterm"
           PID: 1188   TASK: c705e000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "bash"
            PID: 4249   TASK: c6b9a000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "crash"
 
  Display all children of the "kwm" window manager:

    crash> ps -c kwm
      PID: 649    TASK: c179a000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "kwm"
      PID: 682    TASK: c2d58000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "kwmsound"
      PID: 683    TASK: c1164000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "kfm"
      PID: 685    TASK: c053c000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "krootwm"
      PID: 686    TASK: c13fa000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "kpanel"
      PID: 687    TASK: c13f0000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "kbgndwm"
 
  Show the time usage data for pid 18844:

    crash> ps -t 18844
    PID: 18844  TASK: c3012000  CPU: 0   COMMAND: "bash"
        RUN TIME: 00:31:23
      START TIME: 51390045
       USER TIME: 1
     SYSTEM TIME: 3
 
  Show the process status of PID 1, task f9dec000, and all nfsd tasks:

    crash> ps 1 f9dec000 nfsd
       PID    PPID  CPU   TASK    ST  %MEM   VSZ   RSS  COMM
          1      0   1  c0098000  IN   0.0  1096   476  init
        688    687   0  f9dec000  IN   0.1  1732   976  bash
        460      1   1  fa938000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        461      1   1  faa86000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        462      1   0  fac48000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        463      1   0  fb4ca000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        464      1   0  fb4c8000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        465      1   2  fba6e000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        466      1   1  fba6c000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        467      1   2  fac04000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
 
  Show all kernel threads:

    crash> ps -k
       PID    PPID  CPU   TASK    ST  %MEM   VSZ   RSS  COMM
          0      0   1  c0fac000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
          0      0   0  c0252000  RU   0.0     0     0  [swapper]
          2      1   1  c0fa0000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kflushd]
          3      1   1  c03de000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kpiod]
          4      1   1  c03dc000  IN   0.0     0     0  [kswapd]
          5      1   0  c0092000  IN   0.0     0     0  [mdrecoveryd]
        336      1   0  c4a9a000  IN   0.0     0     0  [rpciod]
        337      1   0  c4830000  IN   0.0     0     0  [lockd]
        487      1   1  c4ba6000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        488      1   0  c18c6000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        489      1   0  c0cac000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        490      1   0  c056a000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        491      1   0  c0860000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        492      1   1  c0254000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        493      1   0  c0a86000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
        494      1   0  c0968000  IN   0.0     0     0  [nfsd]
 
  Show the kernel stack pointer of each user task:

    crash> ps -us
       PID    PPID  CPU  KSTACKP  ST  %MEM   VSZ   RSS  COMM
          1      0   0  c009bedc  IN   0.0  1096    52  init
        239      1   0  c15e7ed8  IN   0.2  1332   224  pump
        280      1   1  c7cbdedc  IN   0.2  1092   208  portmap
        295      1   0  c7481edc  IN   0.0  1232     0  ypbind
        301    295   0  c7c7bf28  IN   0.1  1260   124  ypbind
        376      1   1  c5053f28  IN   0.0  1316    40  automount
        381      1   0  c34ddf28  IN   0.2  1316   224  automount
        391      1   1  c2777f28  IN   0.2  1316   224  automount
    ...


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