If the Enhanced Security Utilities are installed and running, an unprivileged user can display information only about processes that the user owns and whose Mandatory Access Control level is dominated by the user's current level. A user with the appropriate privileges can display information about all processes.
Some options accept lists as arguments. Items in a list can be either separated by commas or else enclosed in double quotes and separated by commas or spaces. Values for proclist and grplist must be numeric.
The options are:
Under the -f option, ps tries to determine the command name and arguments 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.
Note that these two options determine only what information is provided for a process; they do not determine which processes will be listed.
?, is printed when there is no controlling terminal).
A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been waited for by the parent, is marked <defunct>.
| ruser | The real user ID of the process. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. | RUSER |
| user | The effective user ID of the process. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. | USER |
| rgroup | The real group ID of the process. This will be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. | RGROUP |
| group | The effective group ID of the process. This will be the textual group ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise. | GROUP |
| pid | The decimal value of the process ID. | PID |
| ppid | The decimal value of the parent process ID. | PPID |
| pgid | The decimal value of the process group ID. | PGID |
| 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. | %CPU |
| vsz | The size of the process in (virtual) memory in kilobytes as a decimal integer. | VSZ |
| nice | The decimal value of the system scheduling priority of the process. See nice(1). | NI |
| etime | The elapsed time since the process was started, in the form [[dd-]hh:]mm:ss where dd will represent the number of days, hh the number of hours, mm the number of minutes, and ss the number of seconds. The dd field will be a decimal integer. The hh, mm, and ss fields will be two-digit decimal integers padded on the left with zeros. | ELAPSED |
| time | The cumulative CPU time of the process in the form: [[dd-]hh:]mm:ss as described above for etime. | TIME |
| tty | The name of the controlling terminal of the process (if any) in the same format used by the who(1) utility. | TT |
| comm | The name of the command being executed (argv [0] value) as a string. | COMMAND |
| args | The command with all its arguments as a string. | COMMAND |
ruser The real user ID of RUSER
the process. This
will be the textual
user ID, if it can
be obtained and the
field width
permits, or a
decimal
representation
otherwise.
user The effective user USER
ID of the process.
This will be the
textual user ID, if
it can be obtained
and the field width
permits, or a
decimal
representation
otherwise.
rgroup The real group ID RGROUP
of the process.
This will be the
textual group ID,
if it can be
obtained and the
field width
permits, or a
decimal
representation
otherwise.
group The effective group GROUP
ID of the process.
This will be the
textual group ID,
if it can be
obtained and the
field width
permits, or a
decimal
representation
otherwise.
pid The decimal value PID
of the process ID.
ppid The decimal value PPID
of the parent
process ID.
pgid The decimal value PGID
of the process
group ID.
pcpu The ratio of CPU %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 size of the VSZ
process in
(virtual) memory in
kilobytes as a
decimal integer.
nice The decimal value NI
of the system
scheduling priority
of the process.
See nice(1)
etime The elapsed time ELAPSED
since the process
was started, in the
form [[dd-
]hh:]mm:ss where dd
will represent the
number of days, hh
the number of
hours, mm the
number of minutes,
and ss the number
of seconds. The dd
field will be a
decimal integer.
The hh, mm, and ss
fields will be
two-digit decimal
integers padded on
the left with
zeros.
time The cumulative CPU TIME
time of the process
in the form:
[[dd-]hh:]mm:ss as
described above for
etime.
tty The name of the TT
controlling
terminal of the
process (if any) in
the same format
used by the who(1)
utility.
comm The name of the COMMAND
command being
executed (argv [0]
value) as a string.
args The command with COMMAND
all its arguments
as a string.
If no termlist, proclist, uidlist, or grplist is specified, ps checks stdin, stdout, and stderr in that sequence, looking for the controlling terminal and attempts to report on processes associated with the controlling terminal. In this case, if stdin, stdout, and stderr are all redirected, ps will not find a controlling terminal, so there will be no report.
ps -ef may not report the start of a tty login session, but rather an earlier time, when a getty was last respawned on the tty line.
The -y option has no effect unless combined with the -l option. It is identical to the -x option in System V Release 4 MP.