NAME

       pstree - display a tree of processes

SYNOPSIS

       pstree [-a, --arguments] [-c, --compact-not] [-C, --color attr] [-g, --show-pgids]
       [-h, --highlight-all, -H pid, --highlight-pid pid] [-l, --long] [-n, --numeric-sort]
       [-N, --ns-sort ns] [-p, --show-pids] [-s, --show-parents] [-S, --ns-changes]
       [-t, --thread-names] [-T, --hide-threads] [-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.

       -C     Color the process name by given attribute. Currently pstree only accepts the  value
              age  which colors by process age.  Processes newer than 60 seconds are green, newer
              than an hour yellow and the remaining red.

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

       -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.

       -l     Display long lines.   By  default,  lines  are  truncated  to  either  the  COLUMNS
              environment  variable  or the display width.  If neither of these methods work, the
              default of 132 columns is used.

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

       -N     Show individual trees for each namespace of  the  type  specified.   The  available
              types are: ipc, mnt, net, pid, time, user, uts.  Regular users don't have access to
              other users' processes information, so the output will be limited.

       -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.

       -S     Show  namespaces  transitions.   Like  -N,  the output is limited when running as a
              regular user.

       -t     Show full names for threads when available.

       -T     Hide threads and only show processes.

       -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     Show the current security attributes of the process. For SELinux systems this  will
              be the security context.

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), proc(5).