1 NAME
 2        ps - report a snapshot of the current
 3        processes.
 4 
 5 SYNOPSIS
 6        ps [options]
 7 
 8 DESCRIPTION
 9        ps displays information about a selection of
10        the active processes.  If you want a
11        repetitive update of the selection and the
12        displayed information, use top(1) instead.
13 
14        This version of ps accepts several kinds of
15        options:
16 
17        1   UNIX options, which may be grouped and
18            must be preceded by a dash.
19        2   BSD options, which may be grouped and
20            must not be used with a dash.
21        3   GNU long options, which are preceded by
22            two dashes.
23 
24        Options of different types may be freely
25        mixed, but conflicts can appear.  There are
26        some synonymous options, which are
27        functionally identical, due to the many
28        standards and ps implementations that this ps
29        is compatible with.
30 
31        Note that "ps -aux" is distinct from
32        "ps aux".  The POSIX and UNIX standards
33        require that "ps -aux" print all processes
34        owned by a user named "x", as well as
35        printing all processes that would be selected
36        by the -a option.  If the user named "x" does
37        not exist, this ps may interpret the command
38        as "ps aux" instead and print a warning.
39        This behavior is intended to aid in
40        transitioning old scripts and habits.  It is
41        fragile, subject to change, and thus should
42        not be relied upon.