NAME

       pstree - display a tree of processes

SYNOPSIS

       pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact] [-h, --highlight-all, -Hpid, --highlight-pid pid]
       [-g] --show-pgids] [-l, --long] [-n, --numeric-sort] [-p, --show-pids] [-s, --show-parents]
       [-u, --uid-changes] [-Z, --security-context] [-A, --ascii, -G, --vt100, -U, --unicode] [pid, user]
       pstree -V, --version

DESCRIPTION

       pstree  shows  running  processes as a tree.  The tree is rooted at either pid or init if pid is omitted.
       If a user name is specified, all process trees rooted at processes owned by that user are shown.

       pstree visually merges identical branches by putting them in square brackets and prefixing them with  the
       repetition count, e.g.

           init-+-getty
                |-getty
                |-getty
                `-getty

       becomes

           init---4*[getty]

       Child  threads  of  a  process  are found under the parent process and are shown with the process name in
       curly braces, e.g.

           icecast2---13*[{icecast2}]

       If pstree is called as pstree.x11 then it will prompt the user at the end of the line to press return and
       will not return until that has happened.  This is useful for when pstree is run in a xterminal.

       Certain kernel or mount parameters, such as the hidepid option for procfs, will hide information for some
       processes. In these situations pstree will attempt to build the tree without  this  information,  showing
       process names as question marks.

OPTIONS

       -a     Show  command  line  arguments.   If the command line of a process is swapped out, that process is
              shown in parentheses.  -a implicitly disables compaction for processes but not threads.

       -A     Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.

       -c     Disable compaction of identical subtrees.  By default, subtrees are compacted whenever possible.

       -G     Use VT100 line drawing characters.

       -h     Highlight the current process and its ancestors.  This is a no-op if the terminal doesn't  support
              highlighting  or  if neither the current process nor any of its ancestors are in the subtree being
              shown.

       -H     Like -h, but highlight the specified process instead.  Unlike with -h, pstree fails when using  -H
              if highlighting is not available.

       -g     Show  PGIDs.   Process  Group  IDs  are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses after each process
              name.  -p implicitly disables compaction.  If both PIDs and PGIDs  are  displayed  then  PIDs  are
              shown first.

       -l     Display long lines.  By default, lines are truncated to the display width or 132 if output is sent
              to a non-tty or if the display width is unknown.

       -n     Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name.  (Numeric sort.)

       -p     Show PIDs.  PIDs are shown as  decimal  numbers  in  parentheses  after  each  process  name.   -p
              implicitly disables compaction.

       -s     Show parent processes of the specified process.

       -u     Show  uid  transitions.  Whenever the uid of a process differs from the uid of its parent, the new
              uid is shown in parentheses after the process name.

       -U     Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters.  Under Linux 1.1-54 and above, UTF-8 mode is  entered
              on the console with echo -e ' 33%8' and left with echo -e ' 33%@'

       -V     Display version information.

       -Z     (SELinux) Show security context for each process.  This flag will only work if pstree is compilied
              with SELinux support.

FILES

       /proc  location of the proc file system

BUGS

       Some character sets may be incompatible with the VT100 characters.

SEE ALSO

       ps(1), top(1).