To see all of the processes running on your Mac OS X computer, we can use the ProcessViewer application we introduced in Chapter 2. Figure 9-2 contains a screen shot of ProcessViewer displaying the user processes at a given time, whereas Figure 9-3 shows the administrator (or root) processes. Figure 9-2 contains additional process ID information at the bottom of the window.
We can also use the ps
command in a Terminal (Unix) window to
see all of the running processes. The ps command
has many options, but using the options a,
u, and x gives us a
user-readable listing of all the currently running processes.
(ProcessViewer’s output is nicer, but it contains
less information than the ps
command’s output.)
Enter ps
auxww in a Terminal
window (the suffix ww is for wide format). Your
listing should contain many of the same programs as the following
listing (the processes in our ps listing differ
from those in our ProcessViewer listing). Some of the processes
running on your computer are bound to differ; it depends on which
programs you are running and how your system is configured.
wsurfer is the username of the user who logged in,
and we’ve formatted the shell output a bit to make
it easier to read.
% ps auxww
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TT STAT TIME COMMAND
wsurfer 615 4.2 5.1 38040 13248 ?? Ss 0:01.24
/System/Library/CoreServices/WindowServer console
wsurfer 63 0.4 0.6 9400 1664 ?? Ss 0:03.35
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/
Frameworks/ATS.framework/Versions/A/Support/ATSServer
root 41 0.0 0.6 3372 1480 ?? Ss 0:00.00 kextd
root 67 0.0 0.0 1276 96 ?? Ss 0:01.85 update
root 70 0.0 0.0 1296 108 ?? Ss 0:00.00 dynamic_pager
-H 40000000 -L 160000000 -S 80000000 -F /private/var/vm/swapfile
root 93 0.0 0.1 2332 372 ?? Ss 0:00.38
/sbin/autodiskmount -va
root 116 0.0 0.6 3820 1496 ?? Ss 0:00.93 configd
root 151 0.0 0.1 1288 156 ?? Ss 0:00.11 syslogd
root 157 0.0 0.0 1604 120 ?? Ss 0:00.00
/usr/libexec/CrashReporter
root 179 0.0 0.1 1580 368 ?? Ss 0:00.23 netinfod -s local
root 186 0.0 0.2 2448 488 ?? Ss 0:01.32 lookupd
root 196 0.0 0.1 1528 300 ?? S<s 0:01.99 ntpd -f
/var/run/ntp.drift -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
root 205 0.0 0.6 8968 1476 ?? S 0:03.54 AppleFileServer
root 209 0.0 0.4 2872 1060 ?? Ss 0:00.85
/System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
root 216 0.0 0.0 1288 116 ?? Ss 0:00.00 inetd
root 226 0.0 0.0 1276 84 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
root 227 0.0 0.0 1276 84 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
root 228 0.0 0.0 1276 84 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
root 229 0.0 0.0 1276 84 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
root 236 0.0 0.1 2192 320 ?? Ss 0:00.00 automount
-m /Network/Servers -fstab -m /automount -static
root 239 0.0 0.4 3684 1068 ?? S 0:00.20 DirectoryService
root 249 0.0 0.3 2136 656 ?? Ss 0:00.23
/System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityServer
root 255 0.0 0.1 1536 224 ?? Ss 0:00.42 /usr/sbin/sshd
root 260 0.0 0.1 1560 152 ?? Ss 0:00.07 cron
root 267 0.0 0.2 5108 528 ?? Ss 0:03.20 slpd -f
/etc/slpsa.conf
wsurfer 616 0.0 1.7 46392 4464 ?? Ss 0:01.65
/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/loginwindow console
wsurfer 623 0.0 0.6 18624 1612 ?? Ss 0:00.93
/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs
wsurfer 624 0.0 5.7 75876 14816 ?? S 0:02.45
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder -psn_0_262145
wsurfer 628 0.0 1.3 53288 3292 ?? S 0:00.54
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock -psn_0_393217
wsurfer 629 0.0 1.0 56400 2748 ?? S 0:00.46
/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/
SystemUIServer -psn_0_524289
wsurfer 630 0.0 1.1 59632 2960 ?? S 0:00.60
/Applications/Clock.app/Contents/MacOS/Clock -psn_0_655361
wsurfer 631 0.0 0.5 39072 1324 ?? S 0:00.13
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/
MacOS/iTunesHelper -psn_0_786433
wsurfer 632 0.0 2.0 62820 5168 ?? S 0:01.37
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal -psn_0_917505
wsurfer 633 0.0 0.4 5876 940 std Ss 0:00.15 -tcsh (tcsh)
root 572 0.0 0.0 0 0 con- Z 0:00.00 (AEServer)
root 638 0.0 0.1 1324 288 std R+ 0:00.01 ps auxww
root 1 0.0 0.1 1292 248 ?? SLs 0:00.01 /sbin/init
root 2 0.0 0.1 1300 144 ?? SL 0:01.31 /sbin/mach_init
%
Table 9-1 contains descriptions of the meanings of
the different fields in the ps listing.
Table 9-1. Fields in the ps command output
|
Field |
Meaning |
|---|---|
|
|
Username of the user who owns the process; usually root, for processes run by the system, or your username. |
|
|
Process identifier of each process. |
|
|
Percentage of CPU time the process is using. |
|
|
Percentage of physical memory the process is using. |
|
|
Amount of virtual memory the process is using. |
|
|
Amount of process resident in physical memory. |
|
|
Terminal being used by the process; a “??” means that the process is not associated with any terminal. Programs that are run from the Mac OS X Terminal application are usually associated with a terminal, whereas GUI programs are not. |
|
|
Status of the process: R is running, S is stopped, W is waiting, N is “niced” (running with reduced priority). |
|
|
Length of time the process has been running. |
|
|
Command that ran the program that started the process. |
You can look up the ps command by typing
man
ps in a Terminal window to learn further details
concerning this command’s output.
Most of the processes displayed in the ps
auxww listing above have an important function.
Table 9-2 lists what each one does.
Table 9-2. Description of the processes in our ps listing
|
Process |
Function |
|---|---|
|
|
This command is not documented. |
|
| |
|
|
This command is not documented. |
|
|
Although this command is not documented, we believe that it is the Adobe Type Server. |
|
|
Flushes internal filesystem caches to the disk every 30 seconds. |
|
|
System memory paging daemon. |
|
|
Disk automounter. |
|
|
System Configuration Server. |
|
|
System logging daemon. |
|
|
Reports crashes. |
|
|
NetInfo Daemon. |
|
|
Lookup daemon, which makes NetInfo run faster. |
|
|
Network Time Protocol daemon, which keeps the computer’s clock synchronized with the time servers. |
|
|
File server for AppleShare. |
|
|
Core services daemon. |
|
|
Internet daemon, which starts a variety of Internet daemons. |
|
|
NFS IO daemon, which provides a write-back cache for the Network File Service. |
|
|
Provides directory services. |
|
|
Auto NFS mounter, which automatically mounts NFS filesystems when requested. |
|
|
Pasteboard Server. |
|
|
Core Services Security Server. |
|
|
SSH server. |
|
|
Program that automatically runs programs listed in the file |
|
|
Mac OS X Window Server. |
|
|
Process that runs the login window. |
|
|
Mac OS X Pasteboard server, which coordinates sharing of data on the various pasteboards. |
|
|
Mac OS X Finder. |
|
|
Mac OS X Dock. |
|
|
Provides command bar icon menus. |
|
|
Terminal application. |
|
|
CPU monitor. |
|
|
|