Advanced Mac OS X Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

Other Tools

ps

The ps command, short for “process status,” has some features for keeping tabs on your program’s memory use. Here is one use of ps:

$​ ​p​s​ ​a​u​x​w​ ​|​ ​g​r​e​p​ ​s​o​m​e​t​h​i​n​g​-​i​n​t​e​r​e​s​t​i​n​g​

where something-interesting is the PID or program name of interest. So, something like

$​ ​p​s​ ​a​u​x​w​ ​|​ ​g​r​e​p​ ​F​i​n​d​e​r​

will show some information about the Finder process:

m​a​r​k​d​ ​ ​ ​2​2​9​ ​ ​ ​0​.​0​ ​ ​1​.​9​ ​ ​ ​ ​2​9​1​2​5​8​4​ ​ ​3​3​1​3​6​ ​ ​?​?​ ​ ​S​ ​ ​ ​0​:​4​3​.​1​1​ ​/​S​y​s​t​e​m​/​ ​\​
L​i​b​r​a​r​y​/​C​o​r​e​S​e​r​v​i​c​e​s​/​F​i​n​d​e​r​.​a​p​p​/​C​o​n​t​e​n​t​s​/​M​a​c​O​S​/​F​i​n​d​e​r​ ​-​p​s​n​_​0​_​2​6​2​1​

In order, the columns are:

1. Owner of the process (markd).

2. Process ID ...