Checking processes with the ps command
For most troubleshooters who want a more complete picture of the processes running on their system, we can employ the ps
command in the following way:
# ps aux | less
Alternatively, the information can be displayed in a user-friendly, tree-view mode like this:
# ps axjf | less
If you prefer a little less detail, try:
# ps auxf | less
Of course, there are always a lot more options that we can use with ps
. For example, the command can be piped and applied with grep
or tail
, and you can use explicit statements such as ps -e
(to show every process on the system). Alternatively, you can target a specific process by typing the following command:
# ps aux | grep <process_name>
Moreover, you can even extend its usage to show every process (except those running as root) with the following variation:
# ps -U root -u root -N
For a specific user, you can use:
# ps -u <username> u
Finally, you can then obtain additional security information and output...