Linux: Manage Processes, ps, kill

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .
ps -e
show all processes and their PID (Process ID) and name 
◆ ps -e | grep emacs
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 2624 pts/3    00:06:04 emacs
…
ps -ef
shows also the UID (user id) 〔see Linux: Users and Groups〕, PPID (Processes Parent ID), TTY (associated terminal) and command argument. 
◆ ps -ef
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
xah       2624  2535  0 04:00 pts/3    00:06:04 emacs
…
ps -ef | grep name
Find a particular process.
pstree
Show the process parent-child relationship
kill pid
Quit a program that has process id pid
kill -s 9 pid
Force quit a process
top
Monitor processes with continuous update. q to quit.
〔see Linux: Monitor Processes: top〕

A better program for monitoring processes than “top” is “htop”. 〔see Linux: Monitor Processes, htop〕