The ps aux command is a powerful tool that lets you monitor the status of processes in your Linux system. It displays a process’s CPU usage, memory usage, and other technical information. It also has several other options that can be used to filter and gather more information about processes.

ps Command Overview

In its simplest form, ps will print four columns of information for minimum two processes and their parent processes in the current shell. Among these, the PID column is usually the most important.

Alternatively, you can use the ps command to show a process hierarchy (forest). The forest option repeats header lines one per page of output, and must match the current Linux kernel exactly for correct output.

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The ps command can also be customized to show a particular process’s name, terminal, and other information. This allows you to easily identify and troubleshoot a problem with a specific process or program.

It can be useful to see a process’s CPU time and its physical and virtual memory consumption. You can sort the process list by these metrics using the pcpu or pmem option.

BSD UNIX style

The options for the ps command can be grouped in the BSD UNIX style, which requires a dash before the options (for example, “-aux”). You can group BSD UNIX style options with other BSD UNIX options using the mix style.

GNU UNIX style

The options for the ps command can also be grouped in the GNU UNIX style, which requires a double dash before the options (for example, “-G”). You can group GNU UNIX style options with other GNU UNIX options using the mix style.