[Tyler McAdams]

When I try the normal way I get an error:

Thaidogs-G4:/usr/sbin tylerm$ ps -ef | grep mysql

ps: illegal option -- f
usage: ps [-aChjlmMrSTuvwx] [-O|o fmt] [-p pid] [-t tty] [-U user]
[-N system] [-W swap]
ps [-L]

[wataru]

I usually use ps -acx

-a is "Display information about other users' processes as well as your own."

-c is "Change the ``command'' column output to just contain the executable name, rather than the full command line." If you don't do this or -ww, the name of the executable may be hidden because the path to it is too long.

-x is "Display information about processes without controlling terminals."

[Tyler McAdams]

Originally posted by wataru:
I usually use ps -acx

-a is "Display information about other users' processes as well as your own."

-c is "Change the ``command'' column output to just contain the executable name, rather than the full command line." If you don't do this or -ww, the name of the executable may be hidden because the path to it is too long.

-x is "Display information about processes without controlling terminals."

So what would be the full command?

ps -acx | grep mysql ?

[wataru]

Yes. The problem was that ps didn't like the -f tag for whatever reason. The rest is correct.

[Brass]

ps -ef

is the common usage in the System V based unix world.

ps -ax

is the common usage in the BSD based unix world.

With the divergence of unix-y operating systems, some commands which are similar on the different versions do actually use different arguments for different things.

In some cases you may also find the the GNU versions of some commands (usually used in Linux distributions) may be different again, but in most cases they'd be based on either System V or BSD versions.

[Tyler McAdams]

I'm used to working on Solaris, AIX and Linux.... all of them that I have used use the ps -ef metaphor.... thanks for the explanation

[Diggory Laycock]

I usually use

ps -ax | grep foo

I was trying to refine this the other day - so exclude the 'grep foo' process from the list - but my Regex skills failed massively - and I couldn't work out how to exclude processes that contain "grep"

Anyone know how to do this?

[Dog Like Nature]

Yes, the BSD heritage of OSX is showing here! I use ps -ef on SYSV, and ps aux on BSD.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
I usually use

ps -ax | grep foo

I was trying to refine this the other day - so exclude the 'grep foo' process from the list - but my Regex skills failed massively - and I couldn't work out how to exclude processes that contain "grep"

Anyone know how to do this?

ps -ax | grep foo | grep -v grep

The -v flag returns all lines that don't match the search string.

[Diggory Laycock]

Great - Thanks!

[Angus_D]

Use either acux or auwwx otherwise you could miss it depending on the width of your terminal window