Question on additional information in COMMAND column of ps -ef output

[Chris Magargee_2]

Hello All!

After searching the forums, Google, manpages, and such, I cannot find the answer to what/where the additional information that can appear in the COMMAND column of the ps -ef output comes from, for example:

db2fmp (Java) 0
db2fmp (idle) 0
db2fmp (C) 0

I have an idea what "idle" means. :-) But wonder what does the "Java" or "C" mean and is there a table/doc somewhere that explains those and possibly others?

Thanks!
Chris

[Patrick Wallek]

If you are seeing that in the last column of the 'ps -ef' output then what you see there will be a function of how the command was run.

The 'ps' command itself does NOTHING to the output in that column, except truncate it if it is too long.

The output you see has less to do with 'ps' and more to do with whatever command was actually run.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Chris:

I believe that you are seeing the arguments to the basename of the process.

Consider:

# UNIX95= ps -e -o pid -o args|head

...note the label "COMMAND"

Now, do:

# UNIX95= ps -e -o pid -o args|grep ps

...and among other processes you should see something like (with a different pid):

14568 ps -e -o pid -o args

...showing the "COMMAND" of 'ps' with the arguments you listed.

See the 'ps' manpges for more details.

Regards!

...JRF...