The ps Command
The ps command is inconsistent between different flavors of Unix. The System V Unices use the normal dash (-) symbol to mark options, so ps -eaf is a common command to list all current processes, while BSD Unices do not, and also recognize different switches; ps aux is a common way to list all current processes on a BSD system. As is often the case, GNU/Linux straddles both traditions, and the GNU implementation of ps accepts System V and BSD options, as well as its own GNU options, such as --user. System V is probably the most widely used format, and the System V style is used in this chapter.
$ ps -fp 3010
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
mysql 3010 2973 0 Oct24 ? 00:11:23 /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --d
atadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --skip-ext
ernal-locking --port=3306
The headings are a little cryptic; UID, PID, and PPID are the Username, Process ID, and Parent PID, respectively. STIME is the time (or date) that the process was started. If associated with a terminal, the terminal is reported under TTY. TIME is the amount of CPU time that the process has used, and CMD is the full name of the executable. C is a rough figure to represent the percentage of CPU time the process is responsible for consuming.
Many ps options can be selected on the command line; to display all processes ...
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