Ps

🆔 Command: ps (Process Status)

While top and htop are like a "live video" of your system, ps is like a snapshot. It gives you a static list of the processes running at the exact moment you press Enter.

1. The "Why"

As a developer working on Project or managing your Linux environment, you often need to find the specific ID of a program to manage it or check its status in a script.

• Find a PID: You need the Process ID (PID) to kill a program that has become unresponsive.
• Scripting: You can use ps in a Bash script to check if a service (like your Supabase backend or a specific Wayland tool) is currently active.
• Resource Check: See exactly what command was used to start a specific process (including all the hidden flags).

2. Basic Syntax

ps [OPTIONS]

If you type just ps, it only shows processes running in your current terminal window (which usually isn't very helpful). To see the "big picture," you need specific flags.

3. The "Standard" Flags

There are two main ways people use ps. Most Linux users memorize the "aux" combination.

The Go-To Command:

ps aux

This will output a massive list of everything running on your system.

4. Practical Examples

A. Finding a Specific Program

Because ps aux creates such a long list, we almost always "pipe" it into grep to find exactly what we want. To find your Java process for Preader:

ps aux | grep java

B. Seeing the "Tree" of Processes

If you want to see which processes are "parents" and which are "children" (e.g., which terminal started which script):

ps axjf

C. Sorting by Resource Usage

To see the top 5 processes eating your memory:

ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -n 6

D. Checking a Specific User's Processes

If you want to see only what your account (user) is running:

ps -u user

5. Understanding the Output Columns

• USER: Who owns the process.
• PID: The unique ID (essential for the kill command).
• %CPU / %MEM: Resource usage.
• STAT: The state of the process (e.g., S for sleeping, R for running, Z for zombie).
• START: When the process began.
• COMMAND: The exact command that started the process.

6. Pro-Tips

• pgrep: If you only need the PID of a program and don't want to deal with the full ps aux | grep mess, use pgrep: pgrep hyprland (This returns just the ID number).
• Snapshot vs. Live: Use ps for quick checks or scripts; use htop when you need to watch a process's behavior over time.
• Arch Linux Context: You might use ps to verify that your display manager or specific Hyprland plugins (like waybar or swaybg) are actually running in the background after you edit your config files.