pstree(1)
NAME
pstree - display a tree of processes
SYNOPSIS
pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact]
[-h, --highlight-all, -Hpid, --highlight-pid pid] [-g] --show-pgids]
[-l, --long] [-n, --numeric-sort] [-N, --ns-sortns [-p, --show-pids]
[-s, --show-parents] [-S, --ns-changes] [-u, --uid-changes]
[-Z, --security-context] [-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode]
[pid, user]
pstree -V, --version
DESCRIPTION
pstree shows running processes as a tree. The tree is rooted at either
pid or init if pid is omitted. If a user name is specified, all
process trees rooted at processes owned by that user are shown.
pstree visually merges identical branches by putting them in square
brackets and prefixing them with the repetition count, e.g.
init-+-getty
|-getty
|-getty
`-getty
becomes
init---4*[getty]
Child threads of a process are found under the parent process and are
shown with the process name in curly braces, e.g.
icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]
If pstree is called as pstree.x11 then it will prompt the user at the
end of the line to press return and will not return until that has
happened. This is useful for when pstree is run in a xterminal.
Certain kernel or mount parameters, such as the hidepid option for
procfs, will hide information for some processes. In these situations
pstree will attempt to build the tree without this information, showing
process names as question marks.
OPTIONS
-a Show command line arguments. If the command line of a process
is swapped out, that process is shown in parentheses. -a
implicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.
-A Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.
-c Disable compaction of identical subtrees. By default, subtrees
are compacted whenever possible.
-G Use VT100 line drawing characters.
-h Highlight the current process and its ancestors. This is a no-
op if the terminal doesn't support highlighting or if neither
the current process nor any of its ancestors are in the subtree
being shown.
-H Like -h, but highlight the specified process instead. Unlike
with -h, pstree fails when using -H if highlighting is not
available.
-g Show PGIDs. Process Group IDs are shown as decimal numbers in
parentheses after each process name. -g implicitly disables
compaction. If both PIDs and PGIDs are displayed then PIDs are
shown first.
-l Display long lines. By default, lines are truncated to either
the COLUMNS environment variable or the display width. If
neither of these methods work, the default of 132 columns is
used.
-n Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name.
(Numeric sort.)
-N Show individual trees for each namespace of the type specified.
The available types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts. Regular
users don't have access to other users' processes information,
so the output will be limited.
-p Show PIDs. PIDs are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses
after each process name. -p implicitly disables compaction.
-s Show parent processes of the specified process.
-S Show namespaces transitions. Like -N, the output is limited
when running as a regular user.
-u Show uid transitions. Whenever the uid of a process differs
from the uid of its parent, the new uid is shown in parentheses
after the process name.
-U Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters. Under Linux 1.1-54
and above, UTF-8 mode is entered on the console with echo -e
' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'
-V Display version information.
-Z (SELinux) Show security context for each process. This flag
will only work if pstree is compilied with SELinux support.
FILES
/proc location of the proc file system
BUGS
Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.
SEE ALSO
ps(1), top(1).
Free and Open Source Software