In UNIX, what are the Ss, Sl, and Ssl proccess types I see with ps aux?

33

6

When doing a ps aux command, I see some process listed as Ss, Ssl and Sl.

What do these mean?

root     24653  0.0  0.0   2256     8 ?        Ss   Apr12   0:00 /bin/bash -c /usr/bin/python /var/python/report_watchman.py 
root     24654  0.0  0.0  74412    88 ?        Sl   Apr12   0:01 /usr/bin/python /var/python/report_watchman.py
root     21976  0.0  0.0   2256     8 ?        Ss   Apr14   0:00 /bin/bash -c /usr/bin/python /var/python/report_watchman.py 
root     21977  0.0  0.0  73628    88 ?        Sl   Apr14   0:01 /usr/bin/python /var/python/report_watchman.py

JiminyCricket

Posted 2010-04-30T15:16:41.323

Reputation: 541

ps aux output meaning – Kris Roofe – 2019-01-30T08:28:30.097

Answers

45

From the ps manpage:

   S    Interruptible sleep (waiting for an event to complete)

  For BSD formats and when the stat keyword is used, additional
  characters may be displayed:
  s    is a session leader
  l    is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL pthreads do)

ire_and_curses

Posted 2010-04-30T15:16:41.323

Reputation: 1 014

12When in doubt, man! – squircle – 2010-04-30T19:19:42.873