ps

ps displays information about a selection of the active processes. If you want a repetitive update of the selection and the displayed information, use top instead.

• ps [EN] @ Wikipedia
• ps [DE] @ Wikipedia

Documentation

• man 1 'ps' [EN]

Further information

• ps Command Examples (05.03.2024) [EN] @ It's FOSS

Syntax

ps [PARAMETER ...]

Parameters

-e

Select all processes. Identical to -A.

-f

Does full-format listing. This option can be combined with many other UNIX-style options to add additional columns. It also causes the command arguments to be printed.

--forest

ASCII art process tree.

-H

Show process hierarchy (forest).

Examples

Start a program (dropbox) if it is not already running

if [[ $(ps -eo 'args' | grep 'dropbox' | grep -cv 'grep') -eq 0 ]]; then
  ${HOME}/.dropbox-dist/dropbox &
fi