pcp-ps - Man Page

Report statistics for Linux Process.

Synopsis

pcp [pcp options] ps [-e] [-U [username]] [-V --version] [-c Command name] [-P pid1,pid2..] [-p pid1,pid2..] [-o col1,col2... or ALL] [-Z timezone] [-z] [-?]

The pcp-ps command is used for monitoring individual process running on the system. Using various options it helps a user to see useful information related to the processes. This information includes CPU percentage, memory and stack usage, scheduling and priority. By default pcp-ps reports live data for the local host.

Options

When invoked via the pcp(1) command, the -h/--host, -O/--origin, -t/--interval, -Z/--timezone and several other pcp options become indirectly available; refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of these options.

The additional command line options available for pcp-ps are:

-e

Display all the process.

PID	Process identifier.
TTY	The terminal associated with the process.
TIME	The cumulated CPU time in [DD-]hh:mm:ss format (time=TIME).
CMD	The task name along with its complete arguments.

-c [command name]

Display the real Command name of the tasks being monitored instead of the UID. If command name is specified, then only tasks belonging to the specified command are displayed.

-U [username], --user-name[=username]

Display the real user name of the tasks being monitored instead of the UID. If username is specified, then only tasks belonging to the specified user are displayed.

-V, --version

Print version number then exit.

-p pid1,pid2.., --pid-list=pid1,pid2..

Display only processes with the listed PIDs.

-P ppid1,ppid2.., --ppid-list=ppid1,ppid2..

Display only processes with the listed PPIDs.

-o

User-defined format.

It is a single argument in the form of a blank-separated or comma-separated list, which offers a way to specify individual output columns.

The argument to -o are following:

COL	HEADER	Description

%cpu	%CPU	cpu utilization of the process
%mem	%MEM	physical memory on the machine expressed as a percentage
start	START	time the command started
time	TIME	accumulated cpu time, user + system
cls	CLS	scheduling class of the process.
cmd	CMD	see Task name. (alias args, command).
args	COMMAND	To display the full program name with its arguments (use at last position in -o list to view full command)
pid	PID	The process ID
ppid	PPID	Parent process ID
pri	PRI	Priority of the process
state	S	see s
rss	RSS	the non-swapped physical memory that a task has used
rtprio	RTPRIO	real-time priority
pname	Pname	Process name
tty	TT	controlling tty (terminal)
uid	UID	see euid
uname	USER	see euser
vsize	VSZ	see vsz
wchan	WCHAN	name of the kernel function in which the process is sleeping

Standard Format Specifiers

Here are the different keywords that may be used to control the output format (e.g. with option -o) or to sort the selected processes

For example: pcp-ps -o pid,user,args

CODE	HEADER	Description

pid	PID	a number representing the process ID
%cpu	%CPU	%cpu utilization of the process in "##.#" format. Currently, it is the CPU time used divided by the time the process has been running (cputime/realtime ratio), expressed as a percentage.
%mem	%MEM	%ratio of the process's resident set size to the physical memory on the machine, expressed as a percentage.
args	COMMAND	Command with all its arguments as a string. Modifications to the arguments may be shown. The output in this column may contain spaces. A process marked <defunct> is partly dead, waiting to be fully destroyed by its parent. Sometimes the process args will be unavailable; when this happens,will instead print the executable name in brackets.
class	CLS	scheduling class of the process. Field's possible values are: - not reported TS SCHED_OTHER FF SCHED_FIFO RR SCHED_RR B SCHED_BATCH ISO SCHED_ISO IDL SCHED_IDLE DLN SCHED_DEADLINE ? unknown value
s	S	minimal state display. See also state if you want additional information displayed.
euid	EUID	effective user ID.
vsz	VSZ	virtual memory size of the process in KiB (1024-byte units). Device mappings are currently excluded; this is subject to change.
euser	EUSER	effective user name. This will be the textual user ID, if it can be obtained and the field width permits, or a decimal representation otherwise.
All	N/A	This option shows USER, PID, PPID, PRI, %CPU, %MEM, VSZ, RSS, S, START, TIME, WCHAN and COMMAND.

-Z timezone, --timezone=timezone: By default, pcp-ps reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the system where pcp-ps is run. The -Z option changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment variable TZ as described in environ(7).
-z , --hostzone: Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of the performance metrics. When replaying a PCP archive that was captured in a foreign timezone, the -z option would almost always be used (the default reporting timezone is the local timezone, which may not be the same as the timezone of the PCP archive).
-? , --help: Display usage message and exit.

Notes

pcp-ps is inspired by the ps(1) command and aims to be command line and output compatible with it.

PCP Environment

Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in pcp.conf(5).

For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).

Info

PCP Performance Co-Pilot