ps
ps [-fhsl] [-o]...
The ps command lists the details all the processes running on a system. By default, the following details are displayed for each process:
Process ID
Total execution time
Process name
Notes:
Whenever data is not accessible to the ps command, a ? symbol is displayed.
The total execution time is not listed on a Hardware Reference Platform (HRP) or a production device as the monitoring mechanism is optimised out of production ROMs.
The ps command supports the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|
-f | Lists the details all the processes along with the following information for each process: |
-h | Displays help information for the ps command. |
-s | Lists the names of the servers. |
-l | Lists the details all the processes along with the following information for each process: Status of the process Process ID Priority of the process Address of the process Size of the process Total execution time Name of the process
|
-o | This option enables you to customise the column headers displayed when the details of all the processes are listed. The default column headers are TIME, PID, COMMAND (command arguments for the process), and COMMAND (complete path of the executable used by the process). You can customise these column headers by assigning a value for the following variables: time (TIME): Total execution time. pid (PID): Process ID. args (COMMAND): Command arguments for the process. The Symbian version of the ps command does not list any command arguments for a process, instead the complete path of the executable used by the process is displayed within square brackets under the comm column. comm (COMMAND): Complete path of the executable used by the process.
Examples: To assign Total Execution Time as column header instead of TIME (the default value), use the following command: ps -o "time=Total Execution Time" Note: You can use a comma (,) to specify multiple values using the -o option. To view the details of the processes with their default column headers, use the following command: ps -o comm,time,args,pid To view the details of the processes with their complete path and assign Exec Time as column header for TIME, use the following command: ps -o comm, time=Exec Time
|
The following table describes the default column headers used be the ps command:
| Column Header | Description |
|---|
S | Describes the state of the process. The only state supported by Symbian is Running. |
PID | Indicates the process ID of the process. |
PRI | Indicates the priority of the process. When the state of the process is suffixed by < it indicates that the process is of high priority. Otherwise, when the status is suffixed by N it indicates that the process is of low priority. |
ADDR | Indicates the memory address of the process. |
SZ | The size in blocks of the core image of the process. (1 block = 512 bytes). |
TIME | The total execution time for the process. This is displayed in the following format: [dd-]hh:mm:ss dd: Days hh: Hours mm: Minutes ss: Seconds
|
CMD | Indicates the command name (complete path of the executable used by the process). The complete path is displayed when you use the -f option. |