How to use ‘ps’ command in Linux

Introduction

Linux's "ps" command stands for "process status," an abbreviation of its full name. You can use it to learn more about what is happening in your system's background processes. Depending on the input parameters, this command may produce different results. This tutorial, however, will use illustrative examples to teach you how to use the "ps" command on Linux.

The "ps" command has specified parameters that can be found in its "help" documentation. This command, however, can be run independently without error.

# ps --help

The "help" manual for the "ps" command is shown in the image below:

If you wish to display the processes that are running in the current shell, then you should execute the “ps” command without any parameters as follows:

# ps

You can also use the following command to see a list of all the processes that are presently executing on your Linux system:

# ps -e

If you want to see the full format, then follow the below command.

Using the -f option will show the complete format.

# ps -f

With the -F switch, you'll see an expanded full-format output.

# ps -F

You can see the processes in virtual memory format by selecting the v option.

# ps v

The -U option filters processes based on the authentic user name you provide.

# ps -U microhost1

In this case, microhost1 represents a user.

The h option hides the output header.

# ps h

The L command displays all format specifiers.

# ps L

Thank You 🙂