pstree

PSTREE(1)                        User Commands                       PSTREE(1)

NAME
       pstree - display a tree of processes

SYNOPSIS
       pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact-not] [-C, --color attr]
       [-g, --show-pgids] [-h, --highlight-all, -Hpid, --highlight-pid pid]
       [-l, --long] [-n, --numeric-sort] [-N, --ns-sort ns] [-p, --show-pids]
       [-s, --show-parents] [-S, --ns-changes] [-t, --thread-names]
       [-T, --hide-threads] [-u, --uid-changes] [-Z, --security-context]
       [-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode] [pid, user]
       pstree -V, --version

DESCRIPTION
       pstree shows running processes as a tree.  The tree is rooted at either
       pid  or  init  if  pid  is  omitted.   If a user name is specified, all
       process trees rooted at processes owned by that user are shown.

       pstree visually merges identical branches by  putting  them  in  square
       brackets and prefixing them with the repetition count, e.g.

           init-+-getty
                |-getty
                |-getty
                `-getty

       becomes

           init---4*[getty]

       Child  threads  of a process are found under the parent process and are
       shown with the process name in curly braces, e.g.

           icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]

       If pstree is called as pstree.x11 then it will prompt the user  at  the
       end of the line to press return and will not return until that has hap-
       pened.  This is useful for when pstree is run in a xterminal.

       Certain kernel or mount parameters, such  as  the  hidepid  option  for
       procfs,  will  hide information for some processes. In these situations
       pstree will attempt to build the tree without this information, showing
       process names as question marks.

OPTIONS
       -a     Show  command  line arguments.  If the command line of a process
              is swapped out, that process is shown in  parentheses.   -a  im-
              plicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.

       -A     Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.

       -c     Disable  compaction of identical subtrees.  By default, subtrees
              are compacted whenever possible.

       -C     Color the process name by given attribute. Currently pstree only
              accepts  age  which colors by process age.  Processes newer than
              60 seconds are green, newer than an hour yellow and the  remain-
              ing red.

       -g     Show  PGIDs.   Process Group IDs are shown as decimal numbers in
              parentheses after each process  name.   -g  implicitly  disables
              compaction.   If both PIDs and PGIDs are displayed then PIDs are
              shown first.

       -G     Use VT100 line drawing characters.

       -h     Highlight the current process and its ancestors.  This is a  no-
              op  if  the  terminal doesn't support highlighting or if neither
              the current process nor any of its ancestors are in the  subtree
              being shown.

       -H     Like  -h,  but  highlight the specified process instead.  Unlike
              with -h, pstree fails when  using  -H  if  highlighting  is  not
              available.

       -l     Display  long  lines.  By default, lines are truncated to either
              the COLUMNS environment variable or the display width.  If  nei-
              ther of these methods work, the default of 132 columns is used.

       -n     Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name.
              (Numeric sort.)

       -N     Show individual trees for each namespace of the type  specified.
              The available types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts.  Regular
              users don't have access to other users'  processes  information,
              so the output will be limited.

       -p     Show PIDs.  PIDs are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses af-
              ter each process name.  -p implicitly disables compaction.

       -s     Show parent processes of the specified process.

       -S     Show namespaces transitions.  Like -N,  the  output  is  limited
              when running as a regular user.

       -t     Show full names for threads when available.

       -T     Hide threads and only show processes.

       -u     Show  uid  transitions.   Whenever  the uid of a process differs
              from the uid of its parent, the new uid is shown in  parentheses
              after the process name.

       -U     Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters.  Under Linux 1.1-54
              and above, UTF-8 mode is entered on the  console  with  echo  -e
              ' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'

       -V     Display version information.

       -Z     (SELinux)  Show  security  context  for each process.  This flag
              will only work if pstree is compiled with SELinux support.

FILES
       /proc  location of the proc file system

BUGS
       Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.

SEE ALSO
       ps(1), top(1).

psmisc                            2019-10-23                         PSTREE(1)