pstree

pstree - display a tree of processes

root@debian60:~/junk# pstree
init─┬─NetworkManager─┬─dhclient
     │                └─{NetworkManager}
     ├─acpid
     ├─atd
     ├─avahi-daemon───avahi-daemon
     ├─bluetoothd
     ├─bonobo-activati───{bonobo-activat}
     ├─console-kit-dae───63*[{console-kit-da}]
     ├─cron
     ├─cupsd
     ├─2*[dbus-daemon]
     ├─exim4
     ├─gconfd-2
     ├─gdm3─┬─gdm-simple-slav─┬─Xorg
     │      │                 ├─gdm-session-wor
     │      │                 ├─gnome-session─┬─at-spi-registry
     │      │                 │               ├─gdm-simple-gree
     │      │                 │               ├─gnome-power-man
     │      │                 │               ├─metacity
     │      │                 │               ├─polkit-gnome-au
     │      │                 │               └─{gnome-session}
     │      │                 └─{gdm-simple-sla}
     │      └─{gdm3}
     ├─6*[getty]
     ├─gnome-settings-
     ├─gvfsd
     ├─kerneloops
     ├─modem-manager
     ├─polkitd
     ├─portmap
     ├─rpc.statd
     ├─rsyslogd───2*[{rsyslogd}]
     ├─sshd───sshd───sshd───bash───su───bash───pstree
     ├─udevd───2*[udevd]
     ├─upowerd
     └─wpa_supplicant

Flags

OPTIONS

      -a     Show  command  line  arguments. If the command line of a process is swapped out, that
             process is shown in parentheses. -a implicitly disables compaction for processes  but
             not threads.

      -A     Use ASCII characters to draw the tree.

      -c     Disable compaction of identical subtrees. By default, subtrees are compacted whenever
             possible.

      -G     Use VT100 line drawing characters.

      -h     Highlight the current process and its ancestors. This is  a  no-op  if  the  terminal
             doesn't  support highlighting or if neither the current process nor any of its ances‐
             tors are in the subtree being shown.

      -H     Like -h, but highlight the specified process instead. Unlike with  -h,  pstree  fails
             when using -H if highlighting is not available.

      -l     Display  long  lines.  By default, lines are truncated to the display width or 132 if
             output is sent to a non-tty or if the display width is unknown.

      -n     Sort processes with the same ancestor by PID instead of by name. (Numeric sort.)

      -p     Show PIDs. PIDs are shown as decimal numbers in parentheses after each process  name.
             -p implicitly disables compaction.

      -u     Show  uid transitions. Whenever the uid of a process differs from the uid of its par‐
             ent, the new uid is shown in parentheses after the process name.

      -U     Use UTF-8 (Unicode) line drawing characters. Under Linux 1.1-54 and above, UTF-8 mode
             is entered on the console with echo -e '\033%8' and left with echo -e '\033%@'

      -V     Display version information.

      -Z     (SELinux)  Show security context for each process. This flag will only work if pstree
             is compilied with SELinux support.