procs

procs is a replacement for ps written in Rust.

Documentation quick links

• Features
• Platform
• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration

Features

• Colored and human-readable output
  • Automatic theme detection based on terminal background
• Multi-column keyword search
• Some additional information which are not supported by ps
  • TCP/UDP port
  • Read/Write throughput
  • Docker container name
  • More memory information
• Pager support
• Watch mode (like top)
• Tree view

Platform

• Linux is supported.
• macOS is experimentally supported.
  • macOS version is checked on GitHub Actions environment only.
  • The issues caused by real-machine are welcome.
• Windows is supported.
• FreeBSD is experimentally supported.

Installation

Download binary

Download from release page, and extract to the directory in PATH.

Nixpkgs

You can install from Nixpkgs.

nix-env --install procs

snapcraft

You can install from snapcraft.

sudo snap install procs

homebrew

You can install from homebrew.

brew install procs

MacPorts

You can install from MacPorts.

sudo port install procs

Alpine Linux

You can install from the Alpine Linux repository.

The correct repository (see above link for the most up-to-date information) should be enabled before apk add.

sudo apk add procs

Arch Linux

You can install from the Arch Linux extra repository.

sudo pacman -S procs

Scoop

You can install with scoop.

scoop install procs

Fedora

sudo dnf install procs

Windows

winget install procs

RPM

You can install with rpm.

sudo rpm -i https://github.com/dalance/procs/releases/download/v0.14.6/procs-0.14.6-1.x86_64.rpm

Cargo

You can install with cargo.

cargo install procs

Installation Notes

Permissions issues

On macOS, normal users can't access any information on other users' processes. On Linux, normal users can't access some information (ex. Read/Write throughput) of other users.

If you want to show this information, you should use sudo.

$ sudo procs
[sudo] password for ...:

If you want to skip password input, you can add the following entry to /etc/sudoers.

[user or group] ALL= NOPASSWD: [procs binary path]
// ex. myuser ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/procs

Usage

In the following screenshots, config/large.toml is used as the configuration.

Show all processes

Type procs only. It shows the information of all processes.

procs

Search by non-numeric keyword

If you add any keyword as argument, it is matched to USER, Command by default.

procs zsh

If you want to add columns matching to non-numeric keyword, nonnumeric_search option can be used in configuration file.

Search by numeric keyword

If a numeric is used as the keyword, it is matched to PID by default. Numeric is treated as exact match, and non-numeric is treated as partial match by default.

procs --or 6000 60000 60001 16723

If you want to add columns matching to numeric keyword, numeric_search option can be used in configuration file.

Note that procfs permissions only allow identifying listening ports for processes owned by the current user, so not all ports will show up unless run as root.

Logical operation of search keywords

If there are some keywords, logical operation between the keywords can be specified by commandline option.

• --and : The processes that match with all keywords are shown.
• --or : The processes that match with any keyword are shown.
• --nand: The processes are shown unless these match with all keywords.
• --nor : The processes are shown unless these match with any keyword.

The default operation can be specified in the configuration file. See [search] section.

Show Docker container name

If you have access permission to docker daemon ( unix:///var/run/docker.sock ), Docker column is added.

procs growi

Note that procs gets the container information through UNIX domain socket, so Docker Toolbox on macOS (doesn't use UNIX domain socket) is not supported. Docker Desktop for Mac is supported but not tested.

Pager

If output lines exceed terminal height, pager is used automatically. This behavior and pager command can be specified by configuration file.

Linux / macOS

On Linux and macOS, less is the default pager. If there is not less, more is used. Instead of them, built-in pager can be used by configuration use_builtin.

Windows

On Windows, built-in pager is always used.

Watch mode

If --watch or --watch-interval <second> option is used, procs automatically updates output like top. If --watch is used, the update interval becomes 1s. The update interval can be specified by the argument of --watch-interval. There are some keyboard shortcuts to control.

• n: Change the sort column to the next column
• p: Change the sort column to the previous column
• a: Change the sort order to ascending
• d: Change the sort order to descending
• q: Quit

Tree view

If --tree option is used, processes are sorted by dependency order and dependency tree is shown at left side.

procs --tree

If TreeSlot column exists in config, dependency tree is shown at the slot.

Sort column

Column sort order can be changed by --sorta or --sortd option. The last character of --sorta and --sortd means sort order: "a"scending and "d"escending.

The column for sort is selected by the option keyword. The keyword is matched with column kind that is shown by --list option. If --sorta cputime, column is sorted by CpuTime with ascending order. If --sortd rss, column is sorted by VmRss with descending order. The keyword is matched partially and case is ignored.

The default sort is specified by [sort] section in the configuration file.

procs --sortd cpu

Insert column

--insert option inserts new column to the position of Slot column or MultiSlot column. The column for insert is selected by the option keyword. The keyword is the same as sort option. A Slot column can be used by an inserted column. If many insertions are required, many Slot columns should be added. A MultiSlot column can be used by many inserted columns. If there is a MultiSlot, all the remaining columns are inserted to the MultiSlot, and the subsequent Slot / MultiSlot is not used. Unused Slot / MultiSlot is not shown.

Shell completion

--gen-completion option generates shell completion files under the current directory. The following shells are supported.

• zsh
• bash
• fish
• powershell
• elvish

--gen-completion-out option generates shell completion to stdout. You can source it directly on some shells.

source <(procs --gen-completion-out bash)

Configuration

Configuration path

You can change configuration by writing a configuration file. There are some configuration examples in config directory of this repository. config/large.toml is the default configuration before procs v0.9.21.

The locations of the configuration file is OS-specific:

• Linux: ~/.config/procs/config.toml, /etc/procs/procs.toml
• macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.dalance.procs/config.toml, /etc/procs/procs.toml
• Windows: ~/AppData/Roaming/dalance/procs/config/config.toml

For compatibility, if ~/.procs.toml exists, it will be preferred to the OS-specific locations.

Specify a configuration from command line

--use-config option can specify a built-in configuration. --load-config option can specify a configuration file path.

Configuration example

The complete example of a configuration file can be generated by --gen-config option.

[[columns]]
kind = "Pid"
style = "BrightYellow|Yellow"
numeric_search = true
nonnumeric_search = false

[[columns]]
kind = "Username"
style = "BrightGreen|Green"
numeric_search = false
nonnumeric_search = true
align = "Right"

[style]
header = "BrightWhite|Black"
unit = "BrightWhite|Black"
tree = "BrightWhite|Black"

[style.by_percentage]
color_000 = "BrightBlue|Blue"
color_025 = "BrightGreen|Green"
color_050 = "BrightYellow|Yellow"
color_075 = "BrightRed|Red"
color_100 = "BrightRed|Red"

[style.by_state]
color_d = "BrightRed|Red"
color_r = "BrightGreen|Green"
color_s = "BrightBlue|Blue"
color_t = "BrightCyan|Cyan"
color_z = "BrightMagenta|Magenta"
color_x = "BrightMagenta|Magenta"
color_k = "BrightYellow|Yellow"
color_w = "BrightYellow|Yellow"
color_p = "BrightYellow|Yellow"

[style.by_unit]
color_k = "BrightBlue|Blue"
color_m = "BrightGreen|Green"
color_g = "BrightYellow|Yellow"
color_t = "BrightRed|Red"
color_p = "BrightRed|Red"
color_x = "BrightBlue|Blue"

[search]
numeric_search = "Exact"
nonnumeric_search = "Partial"
logic = "And"

[display]
show_self = false
show_thread = false
show_thread_in_tree = true
cut_to_terminal = true
cut_to_pager = false
cut_to_pipe = false
color_mode = "Auto"

[sort]
column = 0
order = "Ascending"

[docker]
path = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"

[pager]
mode = "Auto"

[[columns]] section

[[columns]] section defines which columns are used. The first [[columns]] is shown at left side, and the last is shown at right side.

Key	Value	Default	Description
kind	See kind list		Column type
style	See style list		Column style
numeric_search	true, false	false	Whether the column can be matched with numeric keywords
nonnumeric_search	true, false	false	Whether the column can be matched with non-numeric keywords
align	Left, Right, Center	Left	Text alignment
max_width	[Number]		Maximum column width
min_width	[Number]		Minimum column width
header	[String]		Alternate header description

kind list

procs kind	ps STANDARD FORMAT	Description	Linux	macOS	Windows	FreeBSD
Ccgroup	-not supported-	Control group by compressed format	o
Cgroup	cgroup	Control group	o
Command	args	Command with all arguments	o	o	o	o
ContextSw	-not supported-	Context switch count	o	o		o
CpuTime	cputime	Cumulative CPU time	o	o	o	o
Docker	-not supported-	Docker container name	o	o
Eip	eip	Instruction pointer	o
ElapsedTime	-not supported-	Elapsed time	o	o	o	o
Env	e output modifier	Environment variables	o			o
Esp	esp	Stack pointer	o
FileName	comm	File name	o			o
Gid	egid	Group ID	o	o	o	o
GidFs	fgid	File system group ID	o
GidReal	rgid	Real group ID	o	o		o
GidSaved	sgid	Saved group ID	o	o		o
Group	egroup	Group name	o	o	o	o
GroupFs	fgroup	File system group name	o
GroupReal	rgroup	Real group name	o	o		o
GroupSaved	sgroup	Saved group name	o	o		o
MajFlt	maj_flt	Major page fault count	o	o	o	o
MinFlt	min_flt	Minor page fault count	o	o		o
MultiSlot	-not supported-	Slot for --insert option	o	o	o	o
Nice	ni	Nice value	o	o		o
Pgid	pgid	Process group ID	o	o		o
Pid	pid	Process ID ( or Thread ID sorrunded by [] )	o	o	o	o
Policy	policy	Scheduling policy	o	o
Ppid	ppid	Parent process ID	o	o	o	o
Priority	pri	Priority	o	o	o	o
Processor	psr	Currently assigned processor	o			o
ReadBytes	-not supported-	Read bytes from storage	o	o	o	o
RtPriority	rtprio	Real-time priority	o
SecContext	label	Security context	o
Separator	-not supported-	Show | for column separation	o	o	o	o
Session	sid	Session ID	o	o		o
ShdPnd	pending	Pending signal mask for process	o			o
SigBlk	blocked	Blocked signal mask	o			o
SigCgt	caught	Caught signal mask	o			o
SigIgn	ignored	Ignored signal mask	o			o
SigPnd	pending	Pending signal mask for thread	o
Slot	-not supported-	Slot for --insert option	o	o	o	o
Ssb	-not supported-	Speculative store bypass status	o
StartTime	start_time	Starting time	o	o	o	o
State	s	Process state	o	o		o
TcpPort	-not supported-	Bound TCP ports	o	o
Threads	nlwp	Thread count	o	o		o
TreeSlot	-not supported-	Slot for tree column	o	o	o	o
Tty	tty	Controlling TTY	o	o		o
UdpPort	-not supported-	Bound UDP ports	o	o
Uid	euid	User ID	o	o	o	o
UidFs	fuid	File system user ID	o
UidLogin	-not supported-	Login user ID	o
UidReal	ruid	Real user ID	o	o		o
UidSaved	suid	Saved user ID	o	o		o
UsageCpu	%cpu	CPU utilization	o	o	o	o
UsageMem	%mem	Memory utilization	o	o	o	o
User	euser	User name	o	o	o	o
UserFs	fuser	File system user name	o
UserLogin	-not supported-	Login user name	o
UserReal	ruser	Real user name	o	o		o
UserSaved	suser	Saved user name	o	o		o
VmData	-not supported-	Data size	o			o
VmExe	trs	Text segments size	o			o
VmHwm	-not supported-	Peak resident set size	o		o	o
VmLib	-not supported-	Library code size	o
VmLock	-not supported-	Locked memory size	o
VmPeak	-not supported-	Peak virtual memory size	o		o
VmPin	-not supported-	Pinned memory size	o		o
VmPte	-not supported-	Page table entries size	o
VmRss	rss	Resident set size	o	o	o	o
VmSize	vsz	Physical page size	o	o	o	o
VmStack	-not supported-	Stack size	o			o
VmSwap	-not supported-	Swapped-out virtual memory size	o		o
Wchan	wchan	Process sleeping kernel function	o			o
WorkDir	-not supported-	Current working directory	o
WriteByte	-not supported-	Write bytes to storage	o	o	o	o

style list

• BrightBlack
• BrightRed
• BrightGreen
• BrightYellow
• BrightBlue
• BrightMagenta
• BrightCyan
• BrightWhite
• Black
• Red
• Green
• Yellow
• Blue
• Magenta
• Cyan
• White
• Color256
• ByPercentage
• ByState
• ByUnit

There are some special styles like ByPercentage, ByState, ByUnit. These are the styles for value-aware coloring. For example, if ByUnit is chosen, color can be specified for each unit of value ( like K, M, G,,, ). The colors can be configured in [style.by_unit] section.

Other colors can be configured as the same as color.

[style] section

[style] section defines colors of header, unit and each styles. The available list of color is below.

Subsection	Key	Value	Default	Description
	header	See color list	BrightWhite|Black	Header color
	unit	See color list	BrightWhite|Black	Unit color
	tree	See color list	BrightWhite|Black	Tree color
by_percentage	color_000	See color list	BrightBlue|Blue	Color at 0% - 25%
by_percentage	color_025	See color list	BrightGreen|Green	Color at 25% - 50%
by_percentage	color_050	See color list	BrightYellow|Yellow	Color at 50% - 75%
by_percentage	color_075	See color list	BrightRed|Red	Color at 75% - 100%
by_percentage	color_100	See color list	BrightRed|Red	Color at 100% -
by_state	color_d	See color list	BrightRed|Red	Color at D state
by_state	color_r	See color list	BrightGreen|Green	Color at R state
by_state	color_s	See color list	BrightBlue|Blue	Color at S state
by_state	color_t	See color list	BrightCyan|Cyan	Color at T state
by_state	color_z	See color list	BrightMagenta|Magenta	Color at Z state
by_state	color_x	See color list	BrightMagenta|Magenta	Color at X state
by_state	color_k	See color list	BrightYellow|Yellow	Color at K state
by_state	color_w	See color list	BrightYellow|Yellow	Color at W state
by_state	color_p	See color list	BrightYellow|Yellow	Color at P state
by_unit	color_k	See color list	BrightBlue|Blue	Color at unit K
by_unit	color_m	See color list	BrightGreen|Green	Color at unit M
by_unit	color_g	See color list	BrightYellow|Yellow	Color at unit G
by_unit	color_t	See color list	BrightRed|Red	Color at unit T
by_unit	color_p	See color list	BrightRed|Red	Color at unit P
by_unit	color_x	See color list	BrightBlue|Blue	Color at other unit

color list

• BrightBlack
• BrightRed
• BrightGreen
• BrightYellow
• BrightBlue
• BrightMagenta
• BrightCyan
• BrightWhite
• Black
• Red
• Green
• Yellow
• Blue
• Magenta
• Cyan
• White
• Color256

Colors can be configured by theme through |.

style = "BrightWhite|Black" # BrightWhite for dark theme and Black for light theme
style = "BrightWhite"       # BrightWhite for both theme

The first color is for dark theme, and the second is for light theme. If only a color is specified, the color is applied to both theme.

Color256 can be specified by 0-255 value like below:

style = "223|112" # 223 for dark theme and 112 for light theme
style = "223"     # 223 for both theme

[search] section

[search] section defines option for Keyword search.

Key	Value	Default	Description
numeric_search	Exact, Partial	Exact	Whether numeric keywords match exactly or partially
nonnumeric_search	Exact, Partial	Partial	Whether non-numeric keywords match exactly or partially
logic	And, Or, Nand, Nor	And	Logical operation between keywords
case	Smart, Insensitive, Sensitive	Smart	Case sensitivity in search

case

case is case sensitivity in search.

• Smart: If keyword contains uppercase character, case sensitive search. Otherwise case insensitive search
• Insensitive: case insensitive search
• Sensitive: case sensitive search

[display] section

[display] section defines option for output display.

Key	Value	Default	Description
show_self	true, false	false	Whether the self process ( procs ) is shown
show_self_parents	true, false	false	Whether the parents which have self as the only child process are shown
show_thread	true, false	false	Whether the thread information is shown ( Linux only )
show_thread_in_tree	true, false	true	Whether the thread information is shown in tree mode ( Linux only )
show_parent_in_tree	true, false	true	Whether the parent process is shown in tree mode
show_children_in_tree	true, false	true	Whether the children processes are shown in tree mode
show_header	true, false	true	Whether header row is shown
show_footer	true, false	false	Whether footer row is shown
show_kthreads	true, false	true	Whether processes which belong to kthread are shown ( Linux only )
cut_to_terminal	true, false	true	Whether output lines are truncated for output into terminal
cut_to_pager	true, false	false	Whether output lines are truncated for output into pager
cut_to_pipe	true, false	false	Whether output lines are truncated for output into pipe
color_mode	Auto, Always, Disable	Auto	The default behavior of output coloring without --color commandline option
separator	[String]	│	String used as Separator
ascending	[String]	▲	Ascending sort indicator
descending	[String]	▼	Descending sort indicator
tree_symbols	[String; 5]	[│, ─, ┬, ├, └]	Symbols used by tree view
abbr_sid	true, false	true	Whether machine SID is abbreviated ( Windows only )
theme	Auto, Dark, Light	Auto	Default theme

If color_mode is Auto, color is enabled for terminal and pager, disabled for pipe.

If theme is Auto, theme is detected from terminal automatically. Some terminal don't support the automatic detection, so Dark or Light can be specified explicitly.

abbr_sid

Windows SID is too long, so it is abbreviated by default. If abbr_sid is false, SID is fully shown like below:

S-1-5-21-789457439-2186958450-1652286173-1001

If abbr_sid is true, SID is shown like below:

S-1-5-21-...-1001

[sort] section

[sort] section defines the column used for sort and sort order.

Key	Value	Default	Description
column	[Number]	0	Column number to used for sort
order	Ascending, Descending	Ascending	Sort order

If column is 0, value is sorted by the left column.

[docker] section

[docker] section defines how to communicate to docker daemon.

Key	Value	Default	Description
path	[Path]	unix:///var/run/docker.sock	UNIX domain socket to docker daemon

[pager] section

[pager] section defines the behavior of pager.

Key	Value	Default	Description
mode	Auto, Always, Disable	Auto	The default behavior of pager usage without --pager commandline option
detect_width	true, false	false	Whether auto mode detects terminal width overflow
use_builtin	true, false	false	Whether built-in pager is used
command	[Command]	less -SR	Pager command

If mode is Auto, pager is used only when output lines exceed terminal height. Default pager is less -SR ( if less is not found, more -f ).