Controlling processes with the Process Manager

Processes are programs currently running on the system. You can use the SCOadmin Process Manager to perform operations on system processes (locally and on remote systems):

• view processes on the system

• change the priority of a process

• send a signal to a process

Viewing processes

You have several options for viewing processes with the Process Manager:

• view all processes

• by one or more attributes

• by attribute value

• sorted by PID, user, tty, or command

• customize the attributes displayed

• include/exclude attributes in status labels

Viewing all processes

In the Process Manager, select All from the View menu. The default view shows all processes.

Viewing processes by attributes

In the Process Manager, select By User, By Tty, or By Pid from the View menu.

To view processes by a set of extended attributes, select Attributes... from the View menu. The extended attributes are shown in ``Process attributes'' You also have the option of clicking on buttons that select a set of attributes (a Default is automatically selected), including Ownership...

Select an attribute in the ``Available'' column and click on the Add button. You can remove an attribute from your view by selecting it from the ``Selected'' column and clicking on the Remove button. You can search for a specific attribute by entering it in the ``Search for:'' field.

Process attributes

Attribute	Definition
Ruser	real user ID
Tty	controlling port number
Group	group name
Pid	process ID number
Ppid	parent process ID number
Nice	nice(1) value
Time	cumulative execution time for the process
Pcpu	percentage of CPU time used
Vsize	virtual memory size in kilobytes
Pgid	parent group ID number
Etime	time elapsed since the process started
Args	command name with its arguments
User	user name
Command	command being run (no arguments)

Viewing/finding processes by attribute values

In the Process Manager, select Attribute_Filter, from the View menu, or, to find a specific process, select Find Attribute from the Process menu.

1. Select the desired attribute from the displayed list.

2. Click on the desired relation (Equal to can be selected with either of the Less than or Greater than buttons.

3. Enter the desired value.

4. When using the Find Attribute selection, use the Find Next or Find All buttons.

Sorting processes

In the Process Manager, select Sort, from the View menu.

Select the desired sort attribute from the list, then click on a button to select Increasing or Decreasing order. The None button disables ordering.

Customizing the display

You can easily customize the information displayed by the Process Manager. The default display includes the process ID, user name, tty, and command name. You can add or delete fields as desired.

Select Customize Attributes... from the Options menu.

You can change the following:

• list of attributes

• attribute labels

• field width

• data type (alphabetic, octal, integer, hexidecimal)

To change the set of available attributes, see ``Viewing processes by attributes''.

You can reset to the default field widths with the Default button.

Click on Apply to update the display.

Including or excluding attributes in status labels

The Process Manager display includes a status labels below the main list to indicate the selected view and sort criterion used. You can configure these labels to include or exclude the actual values for these attributes.

Select Short View/Sort/Filter Labels from the Options menu. For example, the ``long'' labels would appear as follows:

   View by User (root)    Sort(Pid)

Searching for a process

In the Process Manager, select Find from the Process menu. Enter a pattern and use the Find Next or Find All buttons. The pattern can include standard wildcards.

Changing the priority of a process

All processes are assigned a priority, known as a nice(C) value. This value determines how much computing time is allocated to a process, affecting the length of time the process will take to complete.

In the Process Manager, select the process you wish to re-prioritize from the list and select Priority from the Process menu.

Click on the Raise or Lower Priority buttons and enter an increment, if desired.

Signaling a process

In the Process Manager, select the desired process from the list and select Signal from the Process menu. The most commonly used signal is KILL, used to terminate a process.

The remaining functions are intended for more sophisticated users. See signal(S) for more information.

Signal types

Signal	Purpose
HUP	hangup
INT	interrupt
QUIT	quit
ILL	illegal instruction (not reset when caught)
TRAP	trace trap (not reset when caught)
ABRT	IOT instruction
EMT	EMT instruction
FPE	floating point exception
KILL	kill (cannot be caught or ignored)
BUS	bus error
SEGV	segmentation violation
SYS	bad argument to system call
PIPE	write on a pipe with no one to read it
ALRM	alarm clock
TERM	software termination signal
USR1	user-defined signal 1
USR2	user-defined signal 2
CHLD	death of a child
PWR	power fail
WINCH	window change
POLL	selectable event pending
STOP	sendable stop signal not from tty
TSTP	stop signal from tty
CONT	continue a stopped process
TTIN	background tty read attempt
TTOU	background tty write attempt
VTALRM	virtual timer alarm
PROF	profile alarm
XCPU	exceeded cpu limit
XFSZ	exceeded file size limit
WAITING	all lightweight processes blocked interruptibly notification
LWP	signal reserved for thread library implementation
AIO	asynchronous I/O signal