Viewing full output of PS command

user_207335 0
Viewed 283896

when I run ps -aux command on my linux server, to which I connected using putty, few processes are too long to fit in my current window width. Is there an alternative?

-- Update --

I am sorry for downgrading,I thought others won't find the answer useful too, so I downgraded.

Here is the info you asked for.

hadoop-user@hadoop-desk:~$ echo $TERM
xterm

hadoop-user@hadoop-desk:~$ stty -a
speed 38400 baud; rows 47; columns 158; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>; swtch = <undef>; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R;
werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 -hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -iutf8
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

hadoop-user@hadoop-desk:~$ echo $COLUMNS
158
shell process linux bash
13 Answers

It is likely that you're using a pager such as less or most since the output of ps aux is longer than a screenful. If so, the following options will cause (or force) long lines to wrap instead of being truncated.

ps aux | less -+S

ps aux | most -w

If you use either of the following commands, lines won't be wrapped but you can use your arrow keys or other movement keys to scroll left and right.

ps aux | less -S    # use arrow keys, or Esc-( and Esc-), or Alt-( and Alt-) 

ps aux | most       # use arrow keys, or < and > (Tab can also be used to scroll right)

Lines are always wrapped for more and pg.

When ps aux is used in a pipe, the w option is unnecessary since ps only uses screen width when output is to the terminal.

user_264280

Passing it a few ws will ignore the display width.

Ignacio_Vazquez-Abrams_208620

you can set output format,eg to see only the command and the process id.

ps -eo pid,args

see the man page of ps for more output format. alternatively, you can use the -w or --width n options.

If all else fails, here's another workaround, (just to see your long cmds)

awk '{ split(FILENAME,f,"/") ; printf "%s: %s\n", f[3],$0 }' /proc/[0-9]*/cmdline
user_1315270

Evidence for truncation mentioned by others, (a personal example)

foo=$(ps -p 689 -o command); echo "$foo"

COMMAND
/opt/conda/bin/python -m ipykernel_launcher -f /root/.local/share/jupyter/runtime/kernel-5732db1a-d484-4a58-9d67-de6ef5ac721b.json

That ^^ captures that long output in a variable As opposed to

ps -p 689 -o command

COMMAND
/opt/conda/bin/python -m ipykernel_launcher -f /root/.local/share/jupyter/runtim

Since I was trying this from a Docker jupyter notebook, I needed to run this with the bang of course ..

!foo=$(ps -p 689 -o command); echo "$foo"

Surprisingly jupyter notebooks let you execute even that! But glad to help find the offending notebook taking up all my memory =D

user_4728760

If none of the solutions above work, the output of ps isn't your problem. Maybe you need to set putty to wrap long lines?

Otherwise, we need more information.

user_2266210

None of the above worked for me in a docker container with busybox. What I use is:

$ cat /proc/<PID>/cmdline | tr \\0 ' '
user_4109390
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