Long listings for the ps command
Ever jump onto a Unix system to help resolve a critical problem and find that the information you most want to see in your ps output has run off the right edge of your terminal window? Who hasn't? Fortunately, the various flavors of Unix have command options to allow you to view the text that is normally truncated.
On Linux systems, for example, there is an "l" (long) option that will turn output such as this:
# ps -ef | egrep "apache|CMD"
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 13379 1 0 Jul31 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 21193 13379 0 Aug01 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 7674 13379 0 Aug04 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 7767 13379 0 Aug04 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 7768 13379 0 Aug04 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 7772 13379 0 Aug04 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 7773 13379 0 Aug04 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 12341 13379 0 Aug06 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 13810 13379 0 Aug06 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 13811 13379 0 Aug06 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
daemon 13812 13379 0 Aug06 ? 00:00:00 /var/local/ap
ache/bin/httpd -k s
into output that looks like this:
# ps -elf | egrep "apache|CMD"
F S UID PID PPID C PRI NI ADDR SZ WCHAN STIME
TTY TIME CMD
140 S root 13379 1 0 75 0 - 1234 schedu Jul31
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 21193 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug01
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 7674 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug04
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 7767 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug04
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 7768 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug04
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 7772 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug04
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 7773 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug04
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 12341 13379 0 75 0 - 1289 schedu Aug06
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 13810 13379 0 75 0 - 1286 schedu Aug06
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 13811 13379 0 75 0 - 1286 schedu Aug06
? 00:00:00 /var/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
140 S daemon 13812 13379 0 75 0 - 1286 schedu Aug06
?
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I've always wondered how to
I've always wondered how to view a long cmd line argument for a process using ps, and the article states that in Solaris, the output is wrapped using the "l" cmd. I use Solaris 9, and the output is not wrapped. To overcome this shortcoming, I use the BSD version:/usr/ucb/ps -auxww
Works great.