Linux From Scratch
Prev | Appendix A. Package descriptions | Next

# Procps

## Contents

The Procps package contains the free, kill, oldps, ps, skill, snice, sysctl, tload, top, uptime, vmstat, w and watch programs.

## Description

### free

free displays the total amount of free and used physical and swap memory in the system, as well as the shared memory and buffers used by the kernel.

### kill

kills sends signals to processes.

### oldps and ps

ps gives a snapshot of the current processes.

### skill

skill sends signals to process matching a criteria.

### snice

snice changes the scheduling priority for process matching a criteria.

### sysctl

sysctl modifies kernel parameters at runtime.

### tload

tload prints a graph of the current system load average to the specified tty (or the tty of the tload process if none is specified).

### top

top provides an ongoing look at processor activity in real time.

### uptime

uptime gives a one line display of the following information: the current time, how long the system has been running, how many users are currently logged on, and the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

### vmstat

vmstat reports information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, traps, and cpu activity.

### w

w displays information about the users currently on the machine, and their processes.

### watch

watch runs command repeatedly, displaying its output (the first screenfull).

Prev | Home | Next
Procinfo | Up | Vim