Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide

About Processes

UNIX works with processes. Your login shell, application programs, the edit session you run, and even the ls program that lists your files are all processes under control of the operating environment.

In UNIX you can perform operations on these processes. For example, you can look at all the programs you're running at any time, stop and restart programs as you choose, and investigate and debug errant processes.

Tips for Finding Errant Processes

An errant process is a process that is not doing the job you expect it to do. For example, a process might be consuming a large percentage of your available resources due to a bug, or it might be interfering with another process. Use Process Manager to detect errant processes when you experience the following:

When displaying all processes, Process Manager typically displays thirty to fifty processes, so finding the errant processes can be daunting to the untrained eye. The following tips may help (otherwise contact your System Administrator):