Listing Processes

A ps command could be used to list all the processes being executed on a system.

$ ps [-ef]

-e         Selects all processes.

-f         Does full listing.

ps    shows only the processes related with the user's login session.

-ef    shows full information about all the processes being executed on the system.

Practice

The given example displays the output from the ps command when no options are used.

#ps

PID     TTY    TIME             CMD

859      pts/1    00:00:00          login

883      pts/1    00:00:00          su

884      pts/1    00:00:00          bash

918      pts/1    00:00:00          ps

In the given example, PID refers to the process ID. TTY refers to the terminal from in that the process (or its parent) is beginning. A question mark denotes that there is no controlling terminal. TIME denotes the total amount of CPU time used through the process because it began. COMMAND displays the command which has generated the process.