Command line and full screen utilities for browsing procfs, a "pseudo" file system dynamically generated by Linux to provide information about the status of entries in its process table.
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Jim Warner 6a36bd7afd top: improve/correct several memory fields in man page
Due to quirks in kernel memory management plus limited
information available from /proc/<pid>/status & statm,
some of the top resident memory fields were capable of
exceeding available physical memory. So this commit is
a bit of a band-aid until the kernel has been changed.

Such a change appears to be on the horizon in the form
of three new fields to be added to /proc/<pid>/status.
While not preventing 'resident' memory from apparently
exceeding physical memory, the new fields will help to
clarify any such contingency, if/when we exploit them.

Reference(s):
. original post by Samuel Thibault
https://gitlab.com/procps-ng/procps/issues/21
. informative memory analysis
https://techtalk.intersec.com/2013/07/memory-part-1-memory-types/
https://techtalk.intersec.com/2013/07/memory-part-2-understanding-process-memory/
. kernel changes to /proc/<pid>/status
commit 8cee852ec53fb530f10ccabf1596734209ae336b
commit eca56ff906bdd0239485e8b47154a6e73dd9a2f3

Signed-off-by: Jim Warner <james.warner@comcast.net>
2016-03-15 21:29:59 +11:00
contrib
Documentation miscellaneous: remove some trailing whitespace buildup 2015-06-20 07:46:23 +10:00
include A locale-independent strtod 2016-03-10 22:27:09 +11:00
lib Added Cygwin build support 2016-03-12 15:07:30 +11:00
man-po translations: Update all and fix Polish 2015-08-09 17:37:44 +10:00
misc
po translations: Update all and fix Polish 2015-08-09 17:37:44 +10:00
proc library: miscellaneous tweaks for code and/or comments 2016-03-12 14:52:56 +11:00
ps Merge branch 'master' into newlib 2015-10-28 21:09:26 +11:00
testsuite testsuite: check for trailing garbage in pkill 2015-10-14 21:31:56 +11:00
top top: improve/correct several memory fields in man page 2016-03-15 21:29:59 +11:00
.gitignore library: tests for sysinfo 2015-07-20 22:23:21 +10:00
.gitlab-ci.yml Removed empty test 2015-10-24 14:41:54 +11:00
AUTHORS
autogen.sh
ChangeLog
configure.ac Added Cygwin build support 2016-03-12 15:07:30 +11:00
COPYING
COPYING.LIB
create-man-pot.sh
free.1 free: use SReclaimable in cached 2015-10-24 14:29:25 +11:00
free.c Merge branch 'master' into newlib 2015-10-28 21:09:26 +11:00
INSTALL.md
kill.1
kill.c kill: split out from skill/snice 2015-09-26 09:13:13 +10:00
Makefile.am Added Cygwin build support 2016-03-12 15:07:30 +11:00
NEWS ps: display control group name 2015-08-15 17:10:38 +10:00
pgrep.1 misc: eliminate accumulated trailing whitespace, again 2016-03-12 14:53:53 +11:00
pgrep.c pkill: reject -signal number with trailing garbage 2015-10-14 21:24:38 +11:00
pidof.1
pidof.c Merge branch 'master' into newlib 2015-10-28 21:09:26 +11:00
pkill.1
pmap.1
pmap.c pmap: adapt to normailzed <pids> select/fill interface 2015-10-05 21:50:01 +11:00
pwdx.1
pwdx.c Handle out of memory conditions. 2015-07-11 21:28:47 +02:00
README.md misc: eliminate accumulated trailing whitespace, again 2016-03-12 14:53:53 +11:00
skill.1
skill.c skill: use library for process scanning 2015-09-26 14:32:56 +10:00
slabtop.1 procps: Add a zero-width break point in slabtop.1 2015-06-01 22:04:40 +10:00
slabtop.c library: eliminate extra stack header space provisions 2015-07-23 22:31:50 +10:00
snice.1
sysctl.8
sysctl.c Merge branch 'master' into newlib 2015-10-28 21:09:26 +11:00
sysctl.conf
sysctl.conf.5
tload.1
tload.c library: loadavg change to procps_loadavg 2015-07-01 21:47:30 +10:00
translate-man.sh
uptime.1
uptime.c library: Update uptime calls to standard format 2015-06-29 22:09:59 +10:00
vmstat.8
vmstat.c miscellaneous: silence a whole bunch of clang warnings 2015-09-21 22:34:27 +10:00
w.1 w: correct program help & man page regarding arguments 2015-09-07 18:11:48 +10:00
w.c Added Cygwin build support 2016-03-12 15:07:30 +11:00
watch.1
watch.c watch: interpret esc[m sequence 2016-03-10 22:21:13 +11:00

build status procps

procps is a set of command line and full-screen utilities that provide information out of the pseudo-filesystem most commonly located at /proc. This filesystem provides a simple interface to the kernel data structures. The programs of procps generally concentrate on the structures that describe the processess running on the system.

The following programs are found in procps:

  • free - Report the amount of free and used memory in the system
  • kill - Send a signal to a process based on PID
  • pgrep - List processes based on name or other attributes
  • pkill - Send a signal to a process based on name or other attributes
  • pmap - Report memory map of a process
  • ps - Report information of processes
  • pwdx - Report current directory of a process
  • skill - Obsolete version of pgrep/pkill
  • slabtop - Display kernel slab cache information in real time
  • snice - Renice a process
  • sysctl - Read or Write kernel parameters at run-time
  • tload - Graphical representation of system load average
  • top - Dynamic real-time view of running processes
  • uptime - Display how long the system has been running
  • vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
  • w - Report logged in users and what they are doing
  • watch - Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen

Reporting Bugs

There are a few ways of reporting bugs or feature requests:

  1. Your distributions bug reporter. If you are using a distribution your first port of call is their bug tracker. This is because each distribution has their own patches and way of dealing with bugs. Also bug reporting often does not need any subscription to websites.
  2. GitLab Issues - To the left of this page is the issue tracker. You can report bugs here.
  3. Email list - We have an email list (see below) where you can report bugs. The problem with this method is bug reports often get lost and cannot be tracked. This is especially a big problem when its something that will take time to resolve.

If you need to report bugs, there is more details on the Bug Reporting page.

Email List

The email list for the developers and users of procps is found at http://www.freelists.org/archive/procps/ This email list discusses the development of procps and is used by distributions to also forward or discuss bugs.