Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the
output format (e.g., with option -o) or to sort the selected
processes with the GNU-style --sort option.
For example: ps -eo pid,user,args --sort user
This version of ps tries to recognize most of the keywords used
in other implementations of ps.
The following user-defined format specifiers may contain spaces:
args, cmd, comm, command, fname, ucmd, ucomm, lstart, bsdstart,
start.
Some keywords may not be available for sorting.
CODE HEADER DESCRIPTION
%cpu %CPU cpu utilization of the process in "##.#"
format. Currently, it is the CPU time used
divided by the time the process has been
running (cputime/realtime ratio), expressed
as a percentage. It will not add up to
100% unless you are lucky. (alias pcpu).
%mem %MEM ratio of the process's resident set size
to the physical memory on the machine,
expressed as a percentage. (alias pmem).
args COMMAND command with all its arguments as a string.
Modifications to the arguments may be
shown. The output in this column may
contain spaces. A process marked <defunct>
is partly dead, waiting to be fully
destroyed by its parent. Sometimes the
process args will be unavailable; when this
happens, ps will instead print the
executable name in brackets. (alias cmd,
command). See also the comm format
keyword, the -f option, and the c option.
When specified last, this column will
extend to the edge of the display. If ps
can not determine display width, as when
output is redirected (piped) into a file or
another command, the output width is
undefined (it may be 80, unlimited,
determined by the TERM variable, and so
on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
--cols option may be used to exactly
determine the width in this case. The w or
-w option may be also be used to adjust
width.
blocked BLOCKED mask of the blocked signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32
or 64-bit mask in hexadecimal format is
displayed. (alias sig_block, sigmask).
bsdstart START time the command started. If the process
was started less than 24 hours ago, the
output format is " HH:MM", else it is "
Mmm:SS" (where Mmm is the three letters of
the month). See also lstart, start,
start_time, and stime.
bsdtime TIME accumulated cpu time, user + system. The
display format is usually "MMM:SS", but can
be shifted to the right if the process used
more than 999 minutes of cpu time.
c C processor utilization. Currently, this is
the integer value of the percent usage over
the lifetime of the process. (see %cpu).
caught CAUGHT mask of the caught signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32
or 64 bits mask in hexadecimal format is
displayed. (alias sig_catch, sigcatch).
cgname CGNAME display name of control groups to which the
process belongs.
cgroup CGROUP display control groups to which the process
belongs.
class CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
- not reported
TS SCHED_OTHER
FF SCHED_FIFO
RR SCHED_RR
B SCHED_BATCH
ISO SCHED_ISO
IDL SCHED_IDLE
DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
? unknown value
cls CLS scheduling class of the process. (alias
policy, cls). Field's possible values are:
- not reported
TS SCHED_OTHER
FF SCHED_FIFO
RR SCHED_RR
B SCHED_BATCH
ISO SCHED_ISO
IDL SCHED_IDLE
DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
? unknown value
cmd CMD see args. (alias args, command).
comm COMMAND command name (only the executable name).
Modifications to the command name will not
be shown. A process marked <defunct> is
partly dead, waiting to be fully destroyed
by its parent. The output in this column
may contain spaces. (alias ucmd, ucomm).
See also the args format keyword, the -f
option, and the c option.
When specified last, this column will
extend to the edge of the display. If ps
can not determine display width, as when
output is redirected (piped) into a file or
another command, the output width is
undefined (it may be 80, unlimited,
determined by the TERM variable, and so
on). The COLUMNS environment variable or
--cols option may be used to exactly
determine the width in this case. The
w or -w option may be also be used to
adjust width.
command COMMAND See args. (alias args, command).
cp CP per-mill (tenths of a percent) CPU usage.
(see %cpu).
cputime TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]hh:mm:ss"
format. (alias time).
cputimes TIME cumulative CPU time in seconds (alias
times).
drs DRS data resident set size, the amount of
physical memory devoted to other than
executable code.
egid EGID effective group ID number of the process as
a decimal integer. (alias gid).
egroup EGROUP 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. (alias
group).
eip EIP instruction pointer.
esp ESP stack pointer.
etime ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started,
in the form [[DD-]hh:]mm:ss.
etimes ELAPSED elapsed time since the process was started,
in seconds.
euid EUID effective user ID (alias uid).
euser EUSER effective user name. This will be the
textual user ID, if it can be obtained and
the field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise. The n option can
be used to force the decimal
representation. (alias uname, user).
exe EXE path to the executable. Useful if path
cannot be printed via cmd, comm or args
format options.
f F flags associated with the process, see the
PROCESS FLAGS section. (alias flag,
flags).
fgid FGID filesystem access group ID. (alias fsgid).
fgroup FGROUP filesystem access group ID. This will be
the textual group ID, if it can be obtained
and the field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise. (alias fsgroup).
flag F see f. (alias f, flags).
flags F see f. (alias f, flag).
fname COMMAND first 8 bytes of the base name of the
process's executable file. The output in
this column may contain spaces.
fuid FUID filesystem access user ID. (alias fsuid).
fuser FUSER filesystem access user ID. This will be
the textual user ID, if it can be obtained
and the field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise.
gid GID see egid. (alias egid).
group GROUP see egroup. (alias egroup).
ignored IGNORED mask of the ignored signals, see signal(7).
According to the width of the field, a 32
or 64 bits mask in hexadecimal format is
displayed. (alias sig_ignore, sigignore).
ipcns IPCNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
label LABEL security label, most commonly used for
SELinux context data. This is for the
Mandatory Access Control ("MAC") found on
high-security systems.
lstart STARTED time the command started. See also
bsdstart, start, start_time, and stime.
lsession SESSION displays the login session identifier of a
process, if systemd support has been
included.
luid LUID displays Login ID associated with a
process.
lwp LWP light weight process (thread) ID of the
dispatchable entity (alias spid, tid). See
tid for additional information.
lxc LXC The name of the lxc container within which
a task is running. If a process is not
running inside a container, a dash ('-')
will be shown.
machine MACHINE displays the machine name for processes
assigned to VM or container, if systemd
support has been included.
maj_flt MAJFLT The number of major page faults that have
occurred with this process.
min_flt MINFLT The number of minor page faults that have
occurred with this process.
mntns MNTNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
netns NETNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
ni NI nice value. This ranges from 19 (nicest)
to -20 (not nice to others), see nice(1).
(alias nice).
nice NI see ni.(alias ni).
nlwp NLWP number of lwps (threads) in the process.
(alias thcount).
numa NUMA The node associated with the most recently
used processor. A -1 means that NUMA
information is unavailable.
nwchan WCHAN address of the kernel function where the
process is sleeping (use wchan if you want
the kernel function name). Running tasks
will display a dash ('-') in this column.
ouid OWNER displays the Unix user identifier of the
owner of the session of a process, if
systemd support has been included.
pcpu %CPU see %cpu. (alias %cpu).
pending PENDING mask of the pending signals. See
signal(7). Signals pending on the process
are distinct from signals pending on
individual threads. Use the m option or
the -m option to see both. According to
the width of the field, a 32 or 64 bits
mask in hexadecimal format is displayed.
(alias sig).
pgid PGID process group ID or, equivalently, the
process ID of the process group leader.
(alias pgrp).
pgrp PGRP see pgid. (alias pgid).
pid PID a number representing the process ID (alias
tgid).
pidns PIDNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
pmem %MEM see %mem. (alias %mem).
policy POL scheduling class of the process. (alias
class, cls). Possible values are:
- not reported
TS SCHED_OTHER
FF SCHED_FIFO
RR SCHED_RR
B SCHED_BATCH
ISO SCHED_ISO
IDL SCHED_IDLE
DLN SCHED_DEADLINE
? unknown value
ppid PPID parent process ID.
pri PRI priority of the process. Higher number
means lower priority.
psr PSR processor that process is currently
assigned to.
rgid RGID real group ID.
rgroup RGROUP real group name. This will be the textual
group ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise.
rss RSS resident set size, the non-swapped physical
memory that a task has used (in kilobytes).
(alias rssize, rsz).
rssize RSS see rss. (alias rss, rsz).
rsz RSZ see rss. (alias rss, rssize).
rtprio RTPRIO realtime priority.
ruid RUID real user ID.
ruser RUSER real user ID. This will be the textual
user ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise.
s S minimal state display (one character). See
section PROCESS STATE CODES for the
different values. See also stat if you
want additional information displayed.
(alias state).
sched SCH scheduling policy of the process. The
policies SCHED_OTHER (SCHED_NORMAL),
SCHED_FIFO, SCHED_RR, SCHED_BATCH,
SCHED_ISO, SCHED_IDLE and SCHED_DEADLINE
are respectively displayed as 0, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5 and 6.
seat SEAT displays the identifier associated with all
hardware devices assigned to a specific
workplace, if systemd support has been
included.
sess SESS session ID or, equivalently, the process ID
of the session leader. (alias session,
sid).
sgi_p P processor that the process is currently
executing on. Displays "*" if the process
is not currently running or runnable.
sgid SGID saved group ID. (alias svgid).
sgroup SGROUP saved group name. This will be the textual
group ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise.
sid SID see sess. (alias sess, session).
sig PENDING see pending. (alias pending, sig_pend).
sigcatch CAUGHT see caught. (alias caught, sig_catch).
sigignore IGNORED see ignored. (alias ignored, sig_ignore).
sigmask BLOCKED see blocked. (alias blocked, sig_block).
size SIZE approximate amount of swap space that would
be required if the process were to dirty
all writable pages and then be swapped out.
This number is very rough!
slice SLICE displays the slice unit which a process
belongs to, if systemd support has been
included.
spid SPID see lwp. (alias lwp, tid).
stackp STACKP address of the bottom (start) of stack for
the process.
start STARTED time the command started. If the process
was started less than 24 hours ago, the
output format is "HH:MM:SS", else it is
" Mmm dd" (where Mmm is a three-letter
month name). See also lstart, bsdstart,
start_time, and stime.
start_time START starting time or date of the process. Only
the year will be displayed if the process
was not started the same year ps was
invoked, or "MmmDD" if it was not started
the same day, or "HH:MM" otherwise. See
also bsdstart, start, lstart, and stime.
stat STAT multi-character process state. See section
PROCESS STATE CODES for the different
values meaning. See also s and state if
you just want the first character
displayed.
state S see s. (alias s).
stime STIME see start_time. (alias start_time).
suid SUID saved user ID. (alias svuid).
supgid SUPGID group ids of supplementary groups, if any.
See getgroups(2).
supgrp SUPGRP group names of supplementary groups, if
any. See getgroups(2).
suser SUSER saved user name. This will be the textual
user ID, if it can be obtained and the
field width permits, or a decimal
representation otherwise. (alias svuser).
svgid SVGID see sgid. (alias sgid).
svuid SVUID see suid. (alias suid).
sz SZ size in physical pages of the core image of
the process. This includes text, data, and
stack space. Device mappings are currently
excluded; this is subject to change. See
vsz and rss.
tgid TGID a number representing the thread group to
which a task belongs (alias pid). It is
the process ID of the thread group leader.
thcount THCNT see nlwp. (alias nlwp). number of kernel
threads owned by the process.
tid TID the unique number representing a
dispatchable entity (alias lwp, spid).
This value may also appear as: a process ID
(pid); a process group ID (pgrp); a session
ID for the session leader (sid); a thread
group ID for the thread group leader
(tgid); and a tty process group ID for the
process group leader (tpgid).
time TIME cumulative CPU time, "[DD-]HH:MM:SS"
format. (alias cputime).
times TIME cumulative CPU time in seconds (alias
cputimes).
tname TTY controlling tty (terminal). (alias tt,
tty).
tpgid TPGID ID of the foreground process group on the
tty (terminal) that the process is
connected to, or -1 if the process is not
connected to a tty.
trs TRS text resident set size, the amount of
physical memory devoted to executable code.
tt TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname,
tty).
tty TT controlling tty (terminal). (alias tname,
tt).
ucmd CMD see comm. (alias comm, ucomm).
ucomm COMMAND see comm. (alias comm, ucmd).
uid UID see euid. (alias euid).
uname USER see euser. (alias euser, user).
unit UNIT displays unit which a process belongs to,
if systemd support has been included.
user USER see euser. (alias euser, uname).
userns USERNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
utsns UTSNS Unique inode number describing the
namespace the process belongs to. See
namespaces(7).
uunit UUNIT displays user unit which a process belongs
to, if systemd support has been included.
vsize VSZ see vsz. (alias vsz).
vsz VSZ virtual memory size of the process in KiB
(1024-byte units). Device mappings are
currently excluded; this is subject to
change. (alias vsize).
wchan WCHAN name of the kernel function in which the
process is sleeping, a "-" if the process
is running, or a "*" if the process is
multi-threaded and ps is not displaying
threads.
