pstree - display a tree of processes
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]
[-t, --thread-names]
[-T, --hide-threads]
[-u, --uid-changes]
[-Z, --security-context]
[-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode]
[pid, user]
pstree -V, --version
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.
- -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.
- -t
- Show full names for threads when available.
- -T
- Hide threads and only show processes.
- -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 compiled with SELinux support.
- /proc
- location of the proc file system
Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100
characters.