Widening the column scope for ps -ef | grep call

[chris79]

Hi

I'm trying to grep for a string output from a ps -ef call, however since the column width of the terminal/console is 80(?) characters the grep fails to find the string because the end of the line is chopped off.
For example:
ps ef | grep $1

On other Unix/Linux platforms I can normally modify the COLUMNS environment to an arbitarily high value, say 300. The result is that the grep finds the string as it isn't "lost" off the end of the terminal.

On HP though, this doesn't work. Is there an alternative way of achieving this behaviour?

Many thanks in advance
Chris

[Steve Steel]

Hi


Try the unix95 in ps something like this

echo memory usage per process
echo "----------------------------------------------"
UNIX95= ps -e -o stime,ruser,vsz,sz,pid,ppid,tty,args > /tmp/$PPID
head -n 1 /tmp/$PPID
tail -n +2 /tmp/$PPID|
sort -rn
/bin/rm /tmp/$PPID 2>/dev/null

Then you can get what you seek

Steve Steel

[Pete Randall]

Chris,

You might also want to look at using

ps -efx grep $1


Pete

[Muthukumar_5]

You have to use ps with - first,

if you put ps ef it will give the ps command result only.

To get more extended format use as,

ps -efl | grep -v grep | grep $1

You have to use grep -v grep to avoid on getting grep process too.

or

ps -efx | grep -v grep | grep $1

It will not chomp the output anyway.

If so let us know about that by tunning COLUMNS environment variable too.

[chris79]

Thanks for the replies. However, the -x flag is not recognised with the 'ps' i'm using:

# ps -efx | grep LaunchFile
ps: illegal option -- x
usage: ps [-edaflP] [-u ulist] [-g glist] [-p plist] [-t tlist] [-R prmgroup]


Thanks

Chris

[chris79]

Calling ps -efl was accepted but, athough it widened some of the columns, the final column (args?) remains at maximum length of 60 characters. This is too short for what I need.

Thanks
Chris

[Pete Randall]

Chris,

You didn't mention what version of HP-UX you're using. I assume, since the -x option was not available to you, you must be on 11.0 or earlier. The following document details the extension for 11i:

http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000063200617

In case you can't retrieve that, I'll quote the pertinent part:

"While there is no other solution for 11.00, the option -x extends the COMMAND field to 1024 characters on 11.11"


Pete

[Patrick Wallek]

There is a patch that enables the 'x' option to ps which will give you a wider/longer last column.

The latest 'ps' cumulative patch for HP-UX 11.11 is PHCO_30397
http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?BC=patch.breadcrumb.main|patch.breadcrumb.search|&patchid=PHCO_30397&context=hpux:800:11:11

The latest 'ps' cumulative patch for HP-UX 11.0 is PHCO_30559
http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?BC=patch.breadcrumb.main|patch.breadcrumb.search|&patchid=PHCO_30559&context=hpux:800:11:00

Be sure to check all of the patch dependencies as well.

[chris79]

Pete

Yes, I'm running with 11.00.

Oh, well...


Many thanks for your help
Chris

[Muthukumar_5]

We have to have XPG4 support to have the synapsis as,

XPG4 Synopsis
ps [-aAcdefHjlPx] [-C cmdlist] [-g grplist] [-G gidlist] [-n namelist]
[-o format] [-p proclist] [-R prmgrplist] [-s sidlist] [-t termlist]
[-u uidlist] [-U uidlist]

Here you can use that -x format too,


To do this,

set an environment variable as,

UNIX95=XPG4;export $UNIX95

Is it working out now with ps -efx there