procstat 1 administrator commands nosh procstat process listing tool procstat -b -c -e -i -k -s -S -t -H -a process-id(s) procstat is a tool for listing process information. It is a shim for the list-process-table1 command that provides a more familiar interface (that of the FreeBSD procstat8 command) to that command whilst yielding that command's table-format output. Its output is therefore machine-parseable and suitable for console-flat-table-viewer1 with 1 header line and --format tabbed. It has just two selection modes. With the -a command-line option, list-process-table1 is told to display the entire process table. With a list of process-id(s), list-process-table1 is told to display just the process table entries for process-id(s) (one process ID per argument). Command-line options are translated into options for list-process-table1 as follows: -H Pass the --threads command-line option. -b Request the pid, comm, osrel, emul, and command fields with the --field command-line option. -c Request the pid, comm, args fields with the --field command-line option. -e Request the pid, comm, and envs fields with the --field command-line option. -i Request the pid, comm, siglist, sigmask, sigignore, and sigcatch fields with the --field command-line option. -k Request the pid, tid, comm, tdname, and kstack fields with the --field command-line option. -s Request the pid, comm, euid, ruid, svuid, egid, rgid, svgid, umask, crflags, and groups fields with the --field command-line option. -S Request the pid, tid, comm, tdname, oncpu, lastcpu, csid, lastcpu, and csmask fields with the --field command-line option. -t Request the pid, tid, comm, tdname, oncpu, lastcpu, pri, state, mwchan, and wchan fields with the --field command-line option. No deduplication is done, so list-process-table1 will receive any repetitions exactly as they are. This command uses procstat to display environment information for a shell process. $ procstat -e $$ | > unvis unvis1 decodes the environment column from the machine-parseable form that is output to a more human-readable form for display to a user. This command uses procstat in a loop to feed console-flat-table-viewer1, producing a continually updated display akin to top1 with its -I option. $ while procstat -a -t | awk -F'\t' '{ if (NR < 2 || match($8,"R") > 0) print $0; }' | sed -e '1s/^/^L/' > do > sleep 1 > done | > console-flat-table-viewer --header-count 1 The Form Feeds before the table cause console-flat-table-viewer1 to clear the table display at each iteration. console-flat-table-viewer1 itself decodes the machine-parseable table into a human-readable form for display. Using sed1 to insert the Form Feed rather than printing it separately with printf1 reduces flicker. (The standard output buffering in sed1 causes the write to be a single system call, causing console-flat-table-viewer1 to receive the Form Feed plus replacement data in a single lump, in turn causing it not to redraw a blank intermediate screen.) The use of awk1 demonstrates the machine-parseable nature of the table output and how to retain headers and select rows based upon field values. Because the output of list-process-table1 is machine-parseable, with exactly 1 TAB between fields, there are no problems with empty fields or command names that contain spaces, and $8 is always the correct field number to test for the running process state. The test for NR < 2 allows the header row through. The sed1 processing could be done in the awk1 script. They are separated in the preceding example for simplicity of exposition, with sed1 handling the table separation and awk1 handling the row selection. Combining requires printf: $ while procstat -a -t | awk -F'\t' '{ if (NR < 2) printf "\f%s\n",$0; else if (match($8,"R") > 0) print; }' > do > sleep 1 > done | > console-flat-table-viewer --header-count 1 This procstat is modelled on the FreeBSD procstat8 tool, providing a subset of its functionality. Several command-line options of the FreeBSD procstat8 command are not supported, because they do not translate into list-process-table1 mechanims. Also, several fields are not meaningful outwith FreeBSD. The -w mode of the FreeBSD procstat8 command is not supported. See the examples for a better way to repeatedly print output. Jonathan de Boyne Pollard