*BSD News Article 57383


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: ps weirdness
Date: 19 Dec 1995 22:35:47 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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References: <4a9066$1tqk@info4.rus.uni-stuttgart.de>
Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch)
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schweikh@itosun.ito.uni-stuttgart.de (Jens Schweikhardt) writes:
> A few questions concerning ps as of the 2.1.0 release:
> First some output, then my questions.
> 
> % ps -N /kernel.GENERIC -x    # Yes, I'm really running the GENERIC kernel

..but you don't actually need to use -N, ps will figure out this by
itself.

>   PID  TT  STAT      TIME COMMAND
>     0  ??  DLs    0:00.00  (swapper)
>     1  ??  Is     0:00.00  (init)
..
>   148  v0  Ss     0:00.00  (bash)
>   246  v0  R+     0:00.00  (ps)           <- not sorted after PID
>   149  v1  Is+    0:00.00  (bash)
>   150  v2  Is+    0:00.00  (getty)
> (approximately the same output when I run my custom kernel)

> - Why are all TIME fields 0:00.00? (top(1), however, reports TIME > 0)
> - Why are all processes in parentheses? Where are the invocation options?

Because you forgot to mount procfs.  It's modloadable, so all you
need is

proc            /proc   procfs  ro  0 0

in /etc/fstab.

> - Why is the output not sorted by PID although ps(1) says it should be?

Since the man page got it wrong?  Default ps output always appeared to
be unsorted (i.e., in kernel proc table order).  Only -m or -r
override this (where -u implies -r).

> - I read the notes in the handbook about ps not working with new kernels
>   but shouldn't it work with the generic kernel from the same release?

It will only fail to work if you're installing a new kernel over the
one you've been booting from.  (For obvious reasons.)

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)