The ps command enables you to check the status of active processes on a system, and also display technical information about the processes. This data is useful for administrative tasks, such as determining how to set process priorities.
The ps command includes options to report the following information:
The following list describes some fields that are reported by the ps command. The fields that are displayed depend on which option you choose. For a description of all available options, see the ps(1) man page.
The processor utilization for scheduling. This field is not displayed when the –c option is used.
The scheduling class to which the process belongs such as real-time, system, or timesharing. This field is included only with the –c option.
The command that generated the process.
The SMF FMRI that corresponds to the contract ID for the process.
The nice number of the process, which contributes to its scheduling priority. Making a process "nicer" means lowering its priority.
The process ID.
The parent process ID.
The scheduling priority of the kernel thread. Higher numbers indicate a higher priority.
The starting time of the process in hours, minutes, and seconds.
The virtual address size of the process.
The total amount of CPU time used by the process since it began.
The terminal from which the process, or its parent, was started. A question mark indicates that there is no controlling terminal.
The effective user ID of the owner of the process.
The zone in which the process is running.