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 abc71a46ad library: improve/standardize one interface, <STAT> api
This commit represents a complete redesign of the stat
interface. Gone are the confusing 8 separate accessors
along with their 2 additional read functions. In their
place we have just 3 accessors, with no read required.

That old interface also suffered an inflexibility with
respect to structures.  Now we deal with an unchanging
standard 'result' struct enabling future changes where
the binary interface will no longer need to be broken.

And gone is that former unnecessary typedef, used when
dealing with jiffies. Now the standard C type is used.

Our new API also adds some brand new functionality. If
a caller plans to employ successive 'select' or 'reap'
invocations, then delta values are available (which is
actually only what that top program is interested in).

At some future point a 'sort' function could be easily
introduced to complement the 'reap' function. However,
I saw no need for it at present and so it was omitted.

There were several design decisions which everyone may
not agree with. In support I'll offer these rationals:

. The 'get' function returns a signed long long result
which means a potential loss of some significance. But
I felt the ability to distinguish actual errors (minus
values) from true zero results were worth such a risk.

. The DELTA item enumerators were also made signed and
smaller than their parents. And they are intentionally
grouped as last so as to emphasize those distinctions.

. The SYS type items were excluded from the new 'reap'
function. It would not make sense to duplicate them in
each results stack. They're limited to 'get'/'select'.

. By the same token, some items (DELTA, etc.) will not
be allowed under that 'get' routine. That function was
already open to significant internal overhead (through
subsequent calls like in vmstat.c). That is why it has
been limited via 1 second between reads of /proc/stat.

Lastly, when we finally get around to documenting this
interface there's a real potential toe stubber when it
comes to the numa node portion. The libnuma.so doesn't
really provide any means to retrieve the active nodes.
Thus, any total reported by <stat> is just the highest
node number plus one, as reported by the numa library.

Any unused/inactive nodes are identified through these
. PROCPS_STAT_TIC_ID shows as PROCPS_STAT_NODE_INVALID

By the same token after the STAT_REAP_CPUS_ONLY 'reap'
. PROCPS_STAT_TIC_NUMA_NODE = PROCPS_STAT_NODE_INVALID

Reference(s):
http://www.freelists.org/post/procps/newlib-stat-interface

Signed-off-by: Jim Warner <james.warner@comcast.net>
2016-05-08 21:12:22 +10:00
contrib miscellaneous: clean up trailing whitespace once again 2013-04-07 18:05:01 +10:00
doc library: protect against large version numbers. 2016-05-01 17:14:48 +10:00
Documentation miscellaneous: remove some trailing whitespace buildup 2015-06-20 07:46:23 +10:00
include tests: update template and add pids 2016-04-19 21:33:02 +10:00
lib misc: Few more resource leak fixes 2016-05-03 21:58:13 +10:00
man-po translations: Update all and fix Polish 2015-08-09 17:37:44 +10:00
misc build-sys: rename the 'tools' subdirectory to 'misc' 2012-03-02 21:25:38 +11:00
po lang: Update language files 2016-04-16 17:20:06 +10:00
proc library: improve/standardize one interface, <STAT> api 2016-05-08 21:12:22 +10:00
ps library: procps_uptime() return value is a status 2016-05-01 16:50:25 +10:00
testsuite testsuite: kill test fails on signal names 2016-04-11 22:12:58 +10:00
top top: miscellaneous accumulated tweaks of code/comments 2016-05-08 21:12:22 +10:00
.gitignore pgrep: some coverity fixes 2016-04-27 22:50:25 +10:00
.gitlab-ci.yml test: Update gitlab CI YAML to use shared runner 2016-04-20 22:20:55 +10:00
AUTHORS Changed git site to gitlab 2015-05-10 14:57:50 +10:00
autogen.sh Fix a remaining util-linux word in autogen 2012-02-26 08:39:16 +11:00
ChangeLog Changed git site to gitlab 2015-05-10 14:57:50 +10:00
configure.ac build-sys: Enable optional hardening flags 2016-04-25 17:07:22 +10:00
COPYING license: update FSF addresses 2012-03-04 08:04:24 +11:00
COPYING.LIB miscellaneous: clean up trailing whitespace once again 2013-04-07 18:05:01 +10:00
create-man-pot.sh docs: with systemd now in library, remember openproc.3 2014-07-18 20:49:57 +02:00
free.1 free: use SReclaimable in cached 2015-10-24 14:29:25 +11:00
free.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
INSTALL.md docs: Updated documentation 2015-05-10 17:23:54 +10:00
kill.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
kill.c kill: print usage if no pid is passed in command line 2016-04-11 21:04:41 +10:00
Makefile.am library: rename those readstat.c & h sources to 'stat' 2016-04-26 22:27:16 +10:00
NEWS pidof: check cmd if space in argv0 2016-04-17 16:55:44 +10:00
pgrep.1 misc: eliminate accumulated trailing whitespace, again 2016-03-12 14:53:53 +11:00
pgrep.c pgrep: some coverity fixes 2016-04-27 22:50:25 +10:00
pidof.1 pidof: support for omitted %PPID and additional separators 2013-10-14 15:38:33 +02:00
pidof.c pidof: check cmd if space in argv0 2016-04-17 16:55:44 +10:00
pkill.1 procps 010114 2002-02-01 22:47:29 +00:00
pmap.1 pmap: Including -p in the man page 2013-11-26 13:45:22 +01:00
pmap.c pmap: Do not display error if shmctl(..IPC_RMID) returns EINVAL 2016-04-28 21:37:46 +10:00
pwdx.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
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: support namespaces 2013-04-18 13:59:44 -04:00
skill.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +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: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
snice.1 procps 010114 2002-02-01 22:47:29 +00:00
sysctl.8 docs: Fix typos in slabtop.1, sysctl.8 and uptime.1 2014-09-16 19:35:28 +02:00
sysctl.c Merge branch 'master' into newlib 2015-10-28 21:09:26 +11:00
sysctl.conf docs: remove tcp_default_win_scale from sysctl.conf sample 2012-01-24 22:34:12 +01:00
sysctl.conf.5 docs: Fix typos in sysctl.8 and sysctl.conf.5 2014-09-15 16:24:59 +02:00
tload.1 docs: fix manual page warnings 2012-04-16 12:55:53 +02:00
tload.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
translate-man.sh Fixed translate-man.sh for no top ps 2014-05-28 20:12:33 +10:00
uptime.1 docs: Fix typos in slabtop.1, sysctl.8 and uptime.1 2014-09-16 19:35:28 +02:00
uptime.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
vmstat.8 library: reverting tmpfs subtraction from cached (18-FEB-2014) 2014-04-30 13:59:34 +02:00
vmstat.c vmstat: free before return 2016-05-03 21:57:00 +10:00
w.1 w: correct program help & man page regarding arguments 2015-09-07 18:11:48 +10:00
w.c library: cleanup of library includes 2016-04-16 17:03:57 +10:00
watch.1 watch: typo in man (closign->closing) 2014-09-12 14:22:48 +02:00
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.