FG
💻 Software

ps aux output meaning

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026447037 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

When typing the command , what does each column of the output mean? For example: Thanks and regards!

Error Output

$ ps aux  
timothy  29217  0.0  0.0 11916 4560 pts/21   S+   08:15   0:00 pine  
root     29505  0.0  0.0 38196 2728 ?        Ss   Mar07   0:00 sshd: can [priv]   
can      29529  0.0  0.0 38332 1904 ?        S    Mar07   0:00 sshd: can@notty

Unverified for your environment

Select your OS to check compatibility.

1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Fix for: ps aux output meaning

Low Risk

USER = user owning the process PID = process ID of the process %CPU = It is the CPU time used divided by the time the process has been running. %MEM = ratio of the process’s resident set size to the physical memory on the machine VSZ = virtual memory usage of entire process (in KiB) RSS = resident set size, the non-swapped physical memory that a task has used (in KiB) TTY = controlling tty (terminal) STAT = multi-character process state START = starting time or date of the process TIME = cumula…

Awaiting Verification

Be the first to verify this fix

Sign in to verify this fix

Environment