.TH PS 1
.SH NAME
ps \- process status
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBps \fR[\fR[\fB\-\fR]\fBalxE\fR] 
.br
.de FL
.TP
\\fB\\$1\\fR
\\$2
..
.de EX
.TP 20
\\fB\\$1\\fR
# \\$2
..
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 5
.B \-a
# Print all processes with controlling terminals
.TP 5
.B \-l
# Give long listing
.TP 5
.B \-x
# Include processes without a terminal
.TP 5
.B \-E
# Print kernel endpoint numbers where pids are normally printed
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP 20
.B ps
# Show user's own processes in short format
.TP 20
.B ps \-axlE
# Print all processes and tasks in long format
.TP 20
.B ps \axlE
# Same -- the '\-' is optional
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
\fIPs\fR 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:
.PP
  ST
	State:
		R: runnable
		W: waiting (on a message)
		S: sleeping (i.e.,suspended on PM or VFS)
		Z: zombie
		T: stopped
.PP
  UID, PID, PPID, PGRP
	The user, process, parent process and process group ID's.
.PP
  SZ
	Size of the process in kilobytes.
.PP
  RECV
	Process/task on which a receiving process is waiting or sleeping.
.PP
  TTY	
	Controlling tty for the process.
.PP
  TIME
	Process' cumulative (user + system) execution time.
.PP
  CMD	Command line arguments of the process.
.PP
.PP
The \fI/proc\fR file system is used to obtain the process information.
Terminal names in \fI/dev\fR are used to generate the
mnemonic names in the TTY column, so \fIps\fR is independent of terminal naming
conventions.
.SH NOTES
The '\-' option prefix is not required.
For marginal compatibility with System V usage, the hidden option
.B \-e
means the same as
.BR \-ax ,
and
.B \-f
is the same as
.BR \-l .

.\" edited by ASW 2004-12-14