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/v0.14.8/procs-0.14.8-1.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.

kind list

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

[docker] section

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

[pager] section

[pager] section defines the behavior of pager.

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 ).