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pgrep (ps grep)

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Command pgrep is a command line utility similar to ps It was initially written for Solaris 7 operating system. Later it was reimplementation for all major OS that have /proc pseudo filesystem including Linux, BSD and HP-UX 11.3.

Options are identical with those implemented on Solaris, so Solaris documentation can be used for Linux pgrep.

Like in ps process name can be specified with extended regular expression patterns, and, by default, returns their ID. Functionally, the pgrep  command combines the ps  command with the grep  command.

The syntax:

pgrep [-option] pattern 
Options Description
- l long listings (name of the profess and its PID)
-g pgrplist Matches the processes with the process group ID.
-G gidlist Matches the active processes with the group ID(s) specified in the command line. For example, if you are searching for processes running with the group ID sysman, specify the command pgrep G sysman.
-d delim Specifies a delimiter for separating PIDs.
-n Matches the most recent process.
-P ppidlist The processes are matched with the parent process ID in the listing.
-s sidlist The processes are matched with the session ID in the list.
-t termlist Matches the terminal on which the process is running.
-u euidlist Matches processes with the effective used ID in the list. The effective uid is the uid of the executable file when the SUID of the file is set.
-U uidlist Matches processes with the real uid in the list. The real uid is the uid that the user uses when starting a task or a process.
-v Matches all processes except those that meet the specified criteria in the command line.
-f Matches pattern against full arguments rather than the name of the executable file.
-x Matches the processes that exactly match the specified pattern.

The following example displays the process ID for the process sh:

$ pgrep sh
3
8027
307
765
762
6488
7970
8147
8150

The following command displays the process ID of all those processes matching the in  pattern:

$ pgrep in*
1
59
111
118
156
The pgrep  command with the l  option displays the name of the processes, which contains the string in  along with their PIDs.
$ pgrep -l in
    1 init
  111 in.routed
  118 in.ndpd
  156 inetd
  133 rpcbind

The following command displays the processes owned by user James:

$ pgrep -u james
1459
1464
$

You can combine options. In the following example, both the l  and the u  options are used together with the pgrep  command to display the names of all the processes run by user James, along with his process ID.

$ pgrep -l -u james
 1459 sh
 1464 csh 

The -d  option is used to specify a delimiter for separating PIDs when more than one process ID is tested in the output of the pgrep  command. The following example uses delimiters for the listed processes for the user James.

$ pgrep d";" u james
951; 1042; 1051

NOTE

You can specify more than one user ID by using a comma (,) as a field separator.

Examples

pgrep's default behaviour (returning the process identifier(s) of the named task(s)) is invoked by typing:

pgrep taskname

This is roughly equivalent to the following command:

ps ax | grep taskname | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'

Hence, pgrep simplifies an otherwise complex task.

pgrep also has additional functionality, e.g.:

pgrep -l -G other
pgrep -v -u root
pgrep -u root sshd
pgrep -u root,daemon

Examples from man page
Example 1: Find the process ID of the named daemon:

$ pgrep -u root named

Example 2: Make syslog reread its configuration file:

$ pkill -HUP syslogd

Example 3: Give detailed information on all xterm processes:

$ ps -fp $(pgrep -d, -x xterm)

Example 4: Make all netscape processes run nicer:

$ renice +4 `pgrep netscape`


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Old News ;-)

[Sep 01, 2010] Solaris Operating System pgrep - can I see the switches a process is running with - software.itags.org

Please note that option -f recommended in the second answer just allow to match the pattern against the whole command line which is not what the question was about.

"gev_d" <gdelvalle...gmail.com> writes:
> Now i use pgrep alot, but I'd like to see what options the process is
> running with. for example, let's say I'm running named, but I started
> it with the wrong conf file, how would I be able to see this with
> pgrep ( if that is possible )?

How about something like this?

% ps -fp `pgrep -d, named`
James Carlson, KISS Network <james.d.carlson...sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677

gev_d <gdelvalle...gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
> I used to use ps -ef | grep process_name to find if a process was
> running. What i liked about this was that it showed the whole command
> line argument ( switches and values and all)

pgrep -f
Daniel

Recommended Links

Reference

pgrep, pkill - look up or signal processes based on name and other

attributes

Synopsis

pgrep [-flvx] [-d delimiter] [-n|-o] [-P ppid,...] [-g pgrp,...]
[-s sid,...] [-u euid,...] [-U uid,...] [-G gid,...]

[-t term,...] [pattern]

pkill [-signal] [-fvx] [-n|-o] [-P ppid,...] [-g pgrp,...]
[-s sid,...] [-u euid,...] [-U uid,...] [-G gid,...]

[-t term,...] [pattern]

Description

pgrep looks through the currently running processes and lists the process IDs which matches the selection criteria to stdout. All the criteria have to match. For example,

pgrep -u root sshd

will only list the processes called sshd AND owned by root. On the other hand,

pgrep -u

root,daemon

will list the processes owned by root OR daemon.

pkill will send the specified signal (by default SIGTERM) to each process instead of listing them on stdout.

Options

-d delimiter
Sets the string used to delimit each process ID in the output (by default a newline). (pgrep only.)
-f
The pattern is normally only matched against the process name. When -f is set, the full command line is used.
-g pgrp,...
Only match processes in the process group IDs listed. Process group 0 is translated into pgrep's or pkill's own process group.
-G gid,...
Only match processes whose real group ID is listed. Either the numerical or symbolical value may be used.
-l
List the process name as well as the process ID. (pgrep only.)
-n
Select only the newest (most recently started) of the matching processes.
-o
Select only the oldest (least recently started) of the matching processes.
-P ppid,...
Only match processes whose parent process ID is listed.
-s sid,...
Only match processes whose process session ID is listed. Session ID 0 is translated into pgrep's or pkill's own session ID.
-t term,...
Only match processes whose controlling terminal is listed. The terminal name should be specified without the "/dev/" prefix.
-u euid,...
Only match processes whose effective user ID is listed. Either the numerical or symbolical value may be used.
-U uid,...
Only match processes whose real user ID is listed. Either the numerical or symbolical value may be used.
-v
Negates the matching.
-x
Only match processes whose name (or command line if -f is specified) exactly match the pattern.
-signal
Defines the signal to send to each matched process. Either the numeric or the symbolic signal name can be used. (pkill only.)

Operands

pattern
Specifies an Extended Regular Expression for matching against the process names or command lines.

Examples

Example 1: Find the process ID of the named daemon:

unix$ pgrep

-

u root named

Example 2: Make syslog reread its configuration file:

unix$

pkill -HUP syslogd

Example 3: Give detailed information on all xterm processes:

unix$ ps -fp $(pgrep -d, -x xterm)

Example 4: Make all netscape processes run nicer:

unix$ renice +4 'pgrep netscape'

Exit Status

  1. One or more processes matched the criteria.
  2. No processes matched.
  3. Syntax error in the command line.
  4. Fatal error: out of memory etc.

Notes

The process name used for matching is limited to the 15 characters present in the output of /proc/pid/stat. Use the -f option to match against the complete command line, /proc/pid/cmdline.

The running pgrep or pkill process will never report itself as a match.

Bugs

The options -n and -o and -v can not be combined. Let me know if you need to do this.

Defunct processes are reported.

Standards

pkill and pgrep were introduced in Sun's Solaris 7. This implementation is fully compatible.

Author

Kjetil Torgrim Homme <[email protected]>



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