Process status, information about processes running in memory.
Syntax
ps [-aCcefhjlMmrSTuvwx] [-O fmt] [-o fmt] [-p pid] [-t tty] [-U username]
ps [-L]
Options
-a Display information about other users' processes as well as your own.
-c Change the `command' column output to just contain the executable name
rather than the full command line.
-C Change the way the cpu percentage is calculated by using a
`raw' cpu calculation that ignores `resident' time (this normally has no effect).
-e Display the environment as well.
-f Show commandline and environment information about swapped out processes.
This option is honored only if the uid of the user is 0.
-h Repeat the information header as often as necessary to guarantee
one header per page of information.
-j Print information associated with the following keywords: user,
pid, ppid, pgid, sess, jobc, state, tt, time and command.
-L List the set of available keywords.
-l Display information associated with the following keywords: uid,
pid, ppid, cpu, pri, nice, vsz, rss, wchan, state, tt, time and
command.
-M Print the threads corresponding to each task.
-m Sort by memory usage, instead of by process ID.
-O Add the information associated with the space or comma separated
list of keywords specified, after the process ID, in the default
information display. Keywords may be appended with an equals
(`=') sign and a string. This causes the printed header to use
the specified string instead of the standard header.
-o Display information associated with the space or comma separated
list of keywords specified. Keywords may be appended with an
equals (`=') sign and a string. This causes the printed header
to use the specified string instead of the standard header.
-p Display information associated with the specified process ID.
-r Sort by current cpu usage, instead of by process ID.
-S Change the way the process time is calculated by summing all
exited children to their parent process.
-T Display information about processes attached to the device asso-
ciated with the standard input.
-t Display information about processes attached to the specified
terminal device.
-U Display the processes belonging to the specified username.
-u Display information associated with the following keywords: user,
pid, %cpu, %mem, vsz, rss, tt, state, start, time and command.
The -u option implies the -r option.
-v Display information associated with the following keywords: pid,
state, time, sl, re, pagein, vsz, rss, lim, tsiz, %cpu, %mem and
command. The -v option implies the -m option.
-w Use 132 columns to display information, instead of the default
which is your window size. If the -w option is specified more
than once, ps will use as many columns as necessary without
regard for your window size.
-x Display information about processes without controlling termi-
nals.
Since ps cannot run faster than the system and is run as any other scheduled process, the information it displays can never be exact.
Related:
ps man page - Apple.com
kill - Stop a process from running
lsof - List open files
opensnoop - Snoop file opens as they occur
top - Display process information
