MPS(1) openMosix tools User's Manual MPS(1) <<
mps - report multicomputer process status
mps [-] [lujsvmaxScewhrnu] [txx] [O[+|-]k1[[+|-]k2...]] [pids]
there are also five long options:
--ominfo
--ominfol
--sortX[+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]
--help
--version
More long options are on the way...
mps gives a snapshot of the current processes. If you want a repetitive update of this status, use mtop. This man page docu-
ments the /proc-based version of mps, or tries to.
The command-line options for this version of mps are derived from the BSD version of mps, not the System V version.
The command-line arguments should not be preceeded by a `-' character, because in the future, a `-' will be used to indicate
Unix98-standard command-line arguments, while no `-' will indicate the current ``extended BSD'' style of command line arguments.
For now, mps will give you a warning if you use a `-' for a short option, but it will still work. If you have shell scripts
which use BSD-style arguments to mps, take heed of the warning and fix them, or else your scripts will fail to function cor-
rectly at some point in the future. If you want to turn off the warnings, set the I_WANT_A_BROKEN_PS environment variable.
There are also some ``long options'' in GNU style; see below for those.
l long format
u user format: gives user name and start time
j jobs format: pgid sid
s signal format
v vm format
m displays memory info (combine with p flag to get number of pages).
f "forest" family tree format for command line
a show processes of other users too
x show processes without controlling terminal
S add child cpu time and page faults
c command name from task_struct
e show environment after command line and ` + '
w wide output: don't truncate command lines to fit on one line. To be exact, every w that is specified will add another pos-
sible line to the output. If the space isn't needed it isn't used. You may up to 100 w's.
h no header
r running procs only
n numeric output for USER and WCHAN.
txx only procs with controlling tty xx; for xx you may use either the name of a device file under "/dev" or that name with
either tty or cu sliced off. This is the reverse heuristic that mps uses to print out the abbreviated tty name in the TT
field, e.g. mps -t1.
O[+|-]k1[,[+|-]k2[,...]]
Order the process listing according to the multi-level sort specified by the sequence of short keys from SORT KEYS, k1, k2,
... Default order specifications exist for each of the various formats of mps. These are over-ridden by a user specified
ordering. The `+' is quite optional, merely re-iterating the default direction on a key. `-' reverses direction only on
the key it precedes. As with t and pids, the O option must be the last option in a single command argument, but specifica-
tions in successive arguments are catenated.
pids List only the specified processes; they are comma-delimited. The list must be given immediately after the last option in a
single command-line argument, with no intervening space, e.g. mps -j1,4,5. Lists specified in subsequent arguments are
catenated, e.g. mps -l 1,2 3,4 5 6 will list all of the processes 1-6 in long format. If pids are given, they are listed
no matter what. If a tty is given matching processes are listed no matter what. These two features override the 'a' and
'x' flags.
These options are preceeded by a double-hyphen.
--ominfo, --ominfol
Display openMosix related infos, both short and long format output are implemented. Infos come from where, nmigs, lock and
cantmove openMosix proc files (inspired by ompsinfo).
E.g.:
mps --ominfo
mps --ominfol
mps waux --ominfol
--sortX[+|-]key[,[+|-]key[,...]]
Choose a multi-letter key from the SORT KEYS section. X may be any convenient separator character. To be GNU-ish use `='.
The `+' is really optional since default direction is increasing numerical or lexicographic order. E.g.: mps -jax
--sort=uid,-ppid,+pid
--help
Get a help message that summarizes the usage and gives a list of supported sort keys. This list may be more up to date
than this man page.
--version
Display version and source of this program.
Note that the values used in sorting are the internal values mps uses and not the `cooked' values used in some of the output
format fields. If someone wants to volunteer to write special comparison functions for the cooked values, ... ;-)
SHORT LONG DESCRIPTION
c cmd simple name of executable
C cmdline full command line
f flags flags as in long format F field
g pgrp process group ID
G tpgid controlling tty process group ID
j cutime cumulative user time
J cstime cumulative system time
k utime user time
K stime system time
m min_flt number of minor page faults
M maj_flt number of major page faults
n cmin_flt cumulative minor page faults
N cmaj_flt cumulative major page faults
o session session ID
p pid process ID
P ppid parent process ID
r rss resident set size
R resident resident pages
s size memory size in kilobytes
S share amount of shared pages
t tty the minor device number of tty
T start_time time process was started
U uid user ID number
u user user name
v vsize total VM size in bytes
y priority kernel scheduling priority
PRI This is the counter field in the task struct. It is the time in HZ of the process's possible timeslice.
NI Standard unix nice value; a positive value means less cpu time.
SIZE Virtual image size; size of text+data+stack.
RSS Resident set size; kilobytes of program in memory.
WCHAN
Name of the kernel function where the process is sleeping, with the `sys_' stripped from the function name. If
/etc/psdatabase does not exist, it is just a hex number instead.
STAT Information about the status of the process. The first field is R for runnable, S for sleeping, D for uninterruptible
sleep, T for stopped or traced, or Z for a zombie process. The second field contains W if the process has no resident
pages. The third field is N if the process has a positive nice value (NI field).
NODE openMosix Node Number.
NMIGS
openMosix Number of Migrations.
LOCK openMosix process lock status.
CANTMOVE
openMosix process cantmove description.
TT Controlling tty.
PAGEIN
Number of major page faults (page faults that cause pages to be read from disk, including pages read from the buffer
cache).
TRS Text resident size.
SWAP Kilobytes (or pages if -p is used) on swap device.
SHARE
Shared memory.
This proc-based mps works by reading the files in the proc filesystem, mounted on /proc. This mps does not need to be suid kmem
or have any privileges to run. Do not give this mps any special permissions.
You will need to update the /etc/psdatabase file by running /usr/sbin/psupdate to get meaningful information from the WCHAN
field. This should be done every time you compile a new kernel. You should also run 'mps' as root once and then any time the
tty devices in the "/dev" directory change.
As of procps-1.00, mps/mtop read System.map directly if it is available. The search path for kernel address-to-symbol resolu-
tion is:
$PS_SYSTEM_MAP
/boot/System.map-`uname -r`
/boot/System.map
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/System.map
/etc/psdatabase
/boot/psdatabase-`uname -r`
/boot/psdatabase,
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/psdatabase
The member used_math of task_struct is not shown, since crt0.s checks to see if math is present. This causes the math flag to
be set for all processes, and so it is worthless.
Programs swapped out to disk will be shown without command line arguments, and unless the c option is given, in parentheses.
%CPU shows the cputime/realtime percentage. It will not add up to 100% unless you are lucky. It is time used divided by the
time the process has been running.
The SIZE and RSS fields don't count the page tables and the task_struct of a proc; this is at least 12k of memory that is always
resident. SIZE is the virtual size of the proc (code+data+stack).
To perform the device number to name mapping mps maintains a file called "/etc/psdevtab" (updated whenever "/dev" becomes newer
and permissions allow update). If permissions do not allow update, every invokation of mps requires a stat(2) of every file in
the "/dev" directory. If "/dev" entries change often on your system, you should run mps as root often. I may add a fallback
file under $HOME under force of popular demand.
ps was originally written by Branko Lankester <lankeste@fwi.uva.nl>. Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com> re-wrote it sig-
nificantly to use the proc filesystem, changing a few things in the process. Michael Shields <mjshield@nyx.cs.du.edu> added the
pid-list feature. Charles Blake <cblake@bbn.com> added multi-level sorting, the dirent-style library, the device name-to-number
mmaped database, the approximate binary search directly on System.map, and many code and documentation cleanups. David Moss-
berger-Tang wrote the generic BFD support for psupdate. Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com> is the current maintainer.
mps was written by Mathieu Cousin <Mathieu.Cousin@crm.mot.com>. He patch the ps source code to give informations on the location
of processes on a mosix cluster.
mps was modified by Moreno 'baro' Baricevic <baro@democritos.it>. He patch the mps source code to give nmigs, lock and cantmove
openMosix related informations.
mps.1, this manpage, is an adapted version of ps.1 from the procps-1.2.9 package.
This version of procps is no longer supported by procps team. If openMosix related, send bug reports to <openmosix-
devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.
openmosix(1), ompsinfo(1), mtop(1), ps(1), top(1), pstree(1), proc(5).
openMosix 27 Nov 2003 MPS(1) <<
Last modified: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 - 15:24:12 CEST