Process type "M" ?

[Andrew Rycroft]

Hi,

On the show system command the process type is displayed in a column on the far right.

"N" for network
"S" Subprocess etc.

I now see process type "M".

What does this mean ?

Thanks
Andrew

[labadie_1 · Accepted solution]

means Multithreaded

see the help show system

SYSTEM

/MULTITHREAD

Displays all multithreaded processes for the local system.
When used with the /FULL qualifier, the /MULTITHREAD qualifier
displays information about each kernel thread in a multithreaded
process.

For more information on kernel threads, refer to the OpenVMS
Programming Concepts Manual.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

The DCL Dictionary, under "SHOW SYSTEM", suggests it may mean MULTITHREADED. But that's an inference, no explicit reference.

Hein.

[John Gillings]

Andrew,

"M" is not a process "type", it's more a kind of qualifier. If you look carefully, you'll see that the "M" is in a different column from the "N", "S" or "B". You could see processes tagged "MS" "MN" or "MB".

The processes are *kernel* multithreaded, which means the different threads can run in true parallel on multiple CPUs. Each thread within a process will show up as a different line in SHOW SYSTEM. See section 1.6 in the OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual for details.