- How to check running process in Linux using command line
- Check running process in Linux
- How to manage processes from the Linux terminal
- Linux pgrep command
- Linux top command
- Linux htop command to check running process in Linux
- Linux kill command
- Linux pkill command
- Linux killall command
- Linux nice and renice command
- How to check running process in Ubuntu Linux using command line
- Check running process in Ubuntu Linux
- How to manage processes from the Ubuntu Linux terminal
- Ubuntu Linux pgrep command
- Ubuntu Linux top and htop commands
- Ubuntu Linux kill command
- Ubuntu Linux pkill command
- Ubuntu Linux killall command
- Ubuntu Linux nice and renice command
- Conclusion
- How do I count how many processes are running in Linux?
- Viewing running processes in Linux
- Counts for each file in Linux
- Find how many processes are running in Linux
- Command to count the number of processes running in Linux
- Understanding the wc command options
- Understanding the ps command options
- Conclusion
How to check running process in Linux using command line
I am a new system administrator for the Linux operating system. How do I check running process in Linux using the command line option?
Tutorial details | |
---|---|
Difficulty level | Easy |
Root privileges | Yes |
Requirements | Linux terminal |
Est. reading time | 4 mintues |
One can use the Linux command line or terminal app to display a running process, change their priorities level, delete process and more. This page shows how to use various commands to list, kill and manage process on Linux.
Check running process in Linux
The procedure to monitor the running process in Linux using the command line is as follows:
- Open the terminal window on Linux
- For remote Linux server use the ssh command for log in purpose
- Type the ps aux command to see all running process in Linux
- Alternatively, you can issue the top command or htop command to view running process in Linux
Let us see some example and usage in details.
Please note that vivek@nixcraft:
$ is my shell prompt. You need to type commands after the $ prompt.
How to manage processes from the Linux terminal
The ps command is a traditional Linux command to lists running processes. The following command shows all processes running on your Linux based server or system:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ ps -aux
vivek@nixcraft:
- root – User name
- 1 – PID (Linux process ID)
- 19:10 – Process start time
- /sbin/init splash – Actual process or command
There may be too many processes. Hence, it uses the following less command/more command as pipe to display process one screen at a time:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ ps -aux | more
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo ps -aux | less
Press q to exit from above Linux pagers. You can search for a particular Linux process using grep command/egrep command:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ ps aux | grep firefox
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo ps aux | grep vim
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo ps -aux | egrep ‘sshd|openvpn|nginx’
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Linux pgrep command
Many variants of Linux comes with the pgrep command to search/find process. The syntax is:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo pgrep sshd
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pgrep vim
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pgrep firefox
vivek@nixcraft:
Linux top command
The top command is another highly recommended method to see your Linux servers resource usage. One can see a list of top process that using the most memory or CPU or disk.
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo top
vivek@nixcraft:
Linux htop command to check running process in Linux
The htop command is an interactive process viewer and recommended method for Linux users. One can see a list of top process that using the most memory or CPU or disk and more:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo htop
vivek@nixcraft:
Linux kill command
Want to kill a process? Try kill command. The syntax is:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ kill pid
vivek@nixcraft:
$ kill -signal pid
Find PID using ps, pgrep or top commands. Say you want to kill a PID # 16750, run:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ kill 16750
For some reason if the process can not be killed, try forceful killing:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ kill -9 16750
OR
vivek@nixcraft:
$ kill -KILL 16750
Linux pkill command
If you wish to kill a process by name, try pkill command. The syntax is:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pkill processName
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pkill vim
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pkill firefox
vivek@nixcraft:
$ pkill -9 emacs
vivek@nixcraft:
$ sudo pkill -KILL php7-fpm
Linux killall command
The killall command kills processes by name, as opposed to the selection by PID as done by kill command:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ killall vim
vivek@nixcraft:
$ killall -9 emacs
Linux nice and renice command
The primary purpose of the nice command is to run a process/command at a lower or higher priority. Use the renice command to alter the nice value of one or more running Linux processes. The nice value can range from -20 to 19, with 19 being the lowest priority. Say, you want to compile software on a busy Linux server. You can set a very low priority, enter:
vivek@nixcraft:
$ nice -n 13 cc -c *.c &
Set a very high priority for a kernel update. Before rebooting Linux server, run:
Источник
How to check running process in Ubuntu Linux using command line
I am a new Ubuntu sysadmin for the Ubuntu Linux operating system. How do I check running process in Ubuntu Linux using the command line option?
One can use the Ubuntu Linux command line or terminal app to display a running process, change their priorities level, delete process and more. This page shows how to use various commands to list, kill and manage process on Ubuntu Linux.
Tutorial details | |
---|---|
Difficulty level | Easy |
Root privileges | Yes |
Requirements | Ubuntu Linux |
Est. reading time | 5m |
Check running process in Ubuntu Linux
The procedure to monitor the running process in Ubuntu Linux using the command line is as follows:
- Open the terminal window on Ubuntu Linux
- For remote Ubuntu Linux server use the ssh command for log in purpose
- Type the ps aux command to see all running process in Ubuntu Linux
- Alternatively, you can issue the top command/htop command to view running process in Ubuntu Linux
Let us see some example and usage for Ubuntu Linux in details.
NOTE: Please note that >$
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- In-depth guides for developers and sysadmins at Opensourceflare✨
- Join my Patreon to support independent content creators and start reading latest guides:
- How to set up Redis sentinel cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
- How To Set Up SSH Keys With YubiKey as two-factor authentication (U2F/FIDO2)
- How to set up Mariadb Galera cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
- A podman tutorial for beginners – part I (run Linux containers without Docker and in daemonless mode)
- How to protect Linux against rogue USB devices using USBGuard
Join Patreon ➔
How to manage processes from the Ubuntu Linux terminal
The ps command is a traditional Ubuntu Linux command to lists running processes. The following command shows all processes running on your system: There may be too many processes. Hence, it uses the following less command/more command as pipe to display process one screen at a time: >$ sudo ps -aux | less >$ sudo ps aux | grep chromium-browser >$ sudo ps -aux | egrep ‘sshd|openvpn’ Many variants of Ubuntu Linux comes with the pgrep command to search/find process. The syntax is: The top command is another highly recommended method to see your Ubuntu Linux servers resource usage. One can see a list of top process that using the most memory or CPU or disk. Want to kill a process? Try kill command. The syntax is: >$ kill -signal pid >$ kill 3932 If you wish to kill a process by name, try pkill command. The syntax is: >$ sudo pkill -KILL php7-fpm The killall command kills processes by name, as opposed to the selection by PID as done by kill command: >$ killall -9 emacs The primary purpose of the nice command is to run a process/command at a lower or higher priority. Use the renice command to alter the nice value of one or more running Ubuntu Linux processes. The nice value can range from -20 to 19, with 19 being the lowest priority. Say, you want to compile software on a busy Ubuntu Linux server. You can set a very low priority, enter: >$ nice -n 13 cc -c *.c & To change the priority of a running process, type the following: >$ sudo renice -10 $(pgrep vim) This page shows how to manage the process on the Ubuntu Linux terminal. For further info see man pages or our example pages: 🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via Источник The ps command used to list the currently running processes and their PIDs in Linux and Unix-like systems. At a bare minimum, two processes displayed on the screen. For example, bash and ps might default on Linux when you just type ps command ps The wc is an acronym for word count. By default, wc command counts the number of lines, words, and characters in the text. For examples, show the newline counts Join Patreon ➔ One can use the ps command along with with the wc command to count the number of processes running on your Linux based system by any user. It is best to run the following commands as root user using the sudo command. The Linux syntax is as follows: Pass the —no-headers or —no-heading to print no header line at all to get processes count correctly on Linux: You learned how to list the number of processes running on the Linux or Unix like system using various command-line options. See the gnu ps help page here. 🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via Источник
Press q to exit from above Ubuntu Linux pagers. You can search for a particular Ubuntu Linux process using grep command/egrep command: Ubuntu Linux pgrep command
Ubuntu Linux top and htop commands
Ubuntu Linux kill command
Find PID using ps, pgrep or top command. Say you want to kill a PID # 3932, run:
For some reason if the process can not be killed, try forceful killing: Ubuntu Linux pkill command
Ubuntu Linux killall command
Ubuntu Linux nice and renice command
Set a very high priority for a kernel update. Before rebooting Ubuntu Linux server, run:Conclusion
How do I count how many processes are running in Linux?
Viewing running processes in Linux
Sample outputs:Counts for each file in Linux
echo «line 1» | wc -l
To print the byte counts
echo «Hello» | wc -c
One can print the word counts as follows:
echo «Hello world» | wc -w
Find how many processes are running in Linux
Command to count the number of processes running in Linux
# ps -e | wc -l
To see and count every process on the system using BSD syntax:
# ps axu | wc -l
Want to see and count every process running as vivek (real and effective ID) in user format, run:
$ ps -U vivek -u vivek u | wc -l
Another example for www-data user:
$ ps -U www-data -u www-data u | wc -l
In short to see and count only processes by a certain user naned root, you can use the following command:
sudo ps -U root | wc -l
sudo ps -U root -u root u | wc -l
Next we are going count process IDs of nginx using the following syntax:
ps -C nginx | wc -l
ps -C nginx -o pid= | wc -l
# ps -e —no-headers | wc -l
52
# ps -e | wc -l
53
When count real number of nginx it is a good idea to remove grep command while grepping using ps command:
ps -e —no-headers | grep [n]ginx
ps -e —no-headers | grep [n]ginx | wc -lUnderstanding the wc command options
wc option description -c Print the byte counts -m Print the character counts -l Print the newline counts -w print the word counts —help Display the wc command help and exit Understanding the ps command options
ps option description -e Select all processes (GNU/Linux syntax) aux Select all processes using BSD syntax -U user Select by real user ID (RUID) or name -u user Select by effective user ID (EUID) or name -C cmdlist Select by command name. This selects the processes whose executable name is given in cmdlist —no-headers Print no header line at all. —no-heading is an alias for this option Conclusion