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 ====== Process Control ====== ====== Process Control ======
  
-Slackware systems often run hundreds or thousands of programs, each of which is referred to as a process. Managing these processes is an important part of system administration. So how exactly do we handle all of these seperate processes? +Slackware systems often run hundreds or thousands of programs, each of 
 +which is referred to as a process. Managing these processes is an 
 +important part of system administration. So how exactly do we handle 
 +all of these seperate processes?
 ===== ps ===== ===== ps =====
 +
 +The first step in managing processes is figuring out what processes are
 +currently running. The most popular and powerful tool for this is
 +//**ps**//(1). Without any arguments,
 +//**ps**// won't tell you much information. By
 +default, it only tells you what processes are running in your currently
 +active shell. If we want more information, we'll need to look deeper.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps
 +  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 +12220 pts/4    00:00:00 bash
 +12236 pts/4    00:00:00 ps
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +Here you can see what processes you are running in your currently
 +active shell or terminal and only some information is included.  The
 +PID is the //"Process ID"//; every process is assigned a unique number. The
 +TTY tells you what terminal device the process is attached to.
 +Naturally, CMD is the command that was run. You might be a little
 +confused by TIME though, since it seems to move so slowly. This isn't
 +the amount of real time the process has been running, but rather the
 +amount of CPU time the process has consumed. An idle process uses
 +virtually no CPU time, so this value may not increase quickly.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +Viewing only our own processes isn't very much fun, so let's take a
 +look at all the processes on the system with the //-e//
 +argument.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps -e
 +  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 +    1 ?        00:00:00 init
 +    2 ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
 +    3 ?        00:00:00 migration/0
 +    4 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
 +    7 ?        00:00:11 events/0
 +    9 ?        00:00:01 work_on_cpu/0
 +   11 ?        00:00:00 khelper
 +  102 ?        00:00:02 kblockd/0
 +  105 ?        00:01:19 kacpid
 +  106 ?        00:00:01 kacpi_notify
 +... many more lines omitted ...
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +The above example uses the standard //**ps**//
 +syntax, but much more information can be discovered if we use BSD
 +syntax. In order to do so, we must use the //aux// argument.
 +
 +
 +
 +<note>
 +This is distinct from the //-aux// argument, but in most cases
 +the two arguments are equivalent. This is a decades-old relic. For more
 +information, see the man page for //**ps**//.
 +</note>
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps aux
 +USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
 +root         1  0.0  0.0   3928   632 ?        Ss   Apr05   0:00 init [3]  
 +root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:00 [kthreadd]
 +root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:00 [migration/0]
 +root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
 +root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:11 [events/0]
 +root         9  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:01 [work_on_cpu/0]
 +root        11  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Apr05   0:00 [khelper]
 +... many more lines omitted ....
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +As you can see, BSD syntax offers much more information, including what
 +user controls the process and what percentage of RAM and CPU the process
 +is consuming when //**ps**// is run.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +To accomplish bits of this, on a per process basis, //**ps**// allows
 +one or more process IDs (PIDs) to be provided in the command line, and has the '-o' flag
 +to show a particular attribute of the PID.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps -o cmd -o etime $$
 +CMD                             ELAPSED
 +/bin/bash                         12:22
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +What this is displaying, is the PID's command name (cmd), and its elapsed time (etime). 
 +The PID in this example, is a shell variable for the PID of the current shell. So you
 +can see, in this example, the shell process has existed for 12 minutes, 22 seconds.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +Using the //**pgrep**//(1) command, this can get more automatable.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps -o cmd -o rss -o vsz $(pgrep httpd)
 +CMD                           RSS    VSZ
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33456  84816
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33460  84716
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33588  84472
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  30424  81608
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33104  84900
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33268  85112
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  30640  82724
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  15168  67396
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33180  84416
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  33396  84592
 +/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart  32804  84232
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +In this example, a subshell execution, using //**pgrep**//,
 +is returning the PIDs of any process, whose command
 +name includes 'httpd'. Then //**ps**// displaying the command name, 
 +resident memory size, and virtual memory size.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +Finally, //**ps**// can also create a process tree.
 +This shows you which processes have children processes. Ending the
 +parent of a child process also ends the child. We do this with the
 +//-ejH// argument.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ ps -ejH
 +... many lines omitted ...
 + 3660  3660  3660 tty1     00:00:00   bash
 +29947 29947  3660 tty1     00:00:00     startx
 +29963 29947  3660 tty1     00:00:00       xinit
 +29964 29964 29964 tty7     00:27:11         X
 +29972 29972  3660 tty1     00:00:00         sh
 +29977 29972  3660 tty1     00:00:05           xscreensaver
 +29988 29972  3660 tty1     00:00:04           xfce4-session
 +29997 29972  3660 tty1     00:00:16             xfwm4
 +29999 29972  3660 tty1     00:00:02             Thunar
 +... many more lines omitted ...
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +As you can see, //**ps**//(1) is an incredibly powerful
 +tool for determining not only what processes are currently active on
 +your system, but also for learning lots of important information about
 +them.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +As is the case with many of the applications, there is often several tools 
 +for the job. Similar to the //**ps -ejH**// output, but more terse,
 +is //**pstree**//(1). It displays the process tree, a bit more visually.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ pstree
 +init-+-atd
 +     |-crond
 +     |-dbus-daemon
 +     |-httpd---10*[httpd]
 +     |-inetd
 +     |-klogd
 +     |-mysqld_safe---mysqld---8*[{mysqld}]
 +     |-screen-+-4*[bash]
 +     |        |-bash---pstree
 +     |        |-2*[bash---ssh]
 +     |        `-bash---irssi
 +     |-2*[sendmail]
 +     |-ssh-agent
 +     |-sshd---sshd---sshd---bash---screen
 +     `-syslogd
 +</code>
 ===== kill and killall ===== ===== kill and killall =====
 +
 +Managing processes isn't only about knowing which ones are running, but
 +also about communicating with them to change their behavior. The most
 +common way of managing a program is to terminate it. Thus, the tool for
 +the job is named //**kill**//(1). Despite the name,
 +//**kill**// doesn't actually terminate processes,
 +but sends signals to them. The most common signal is a SIGTERM, which
 +tells the process to finish up what it is doing and terminate. There
 +are a variety of other signals that can be sent, but the three most
 +common are SIGTERM, SIGHUP, and SIGKILL.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +What a process does when it receives a signal varies. Most programs
 +will terminate (or attempt to terminate) whenever they receive any
 +signal, but there are a few important differences. For starters, the
 +SIGTERM signal informs the process that it should terminate itself at
 +its earliest convenience. This gives the process time to finish up any
 +important activities, such as writing information to the disk, before
 +it closes. In contrast, the SIGKILL signal tells the process to
 +terminate itself immediately, no questions asked. This is most useful
 +for killing processes that are not responding and is sometimes called
 +the //"silver bullet"//. Some processes (particularly daemons) capture the
 +SIGHUP signal and reload their configuration files whenever they
 +receive it.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +In order to signal a process, we first need to know it's PID. You can
 +get this easily with //**ps**// as we discused. In
 +order to send different signals to a running process, you simply pass
 +the signal number and //-s// as an argument.  The //-l//
 +argument lists all the signals you can choose and their number. You can
 +also send signals by their name with //-s//.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ kill -l
 + 1) SIGHUP 2) SIGINT 3) SIGQUIT 4) SIGILL
 + 5) SIGTRAP 6) SIGABRT 7) SIGBUS 8) SIGFPE
 + 9) SIGKILL 10) SIGUSR1 11) SIGSEGV 12) SIGUSR2
 +13) SIGPIPE 14) SIGALRM 15) SIGTERM 16) SIGSTKFLT
 +... many more lines omitted ...
 +darkstar:~$ kill 1234 # SIGTERM
 +darkstar:~$ kill -s 9 1234 # SIGKILL
 +darkstar:~$ kill -s 1 1234 # SIGHUP
 +darkstar:~$ kill -s HUP 1234 # SIGHUP
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +Sometimes you may wish to terminate all running processes with a
 +certain name. You can kill processes by name with
 +//**killall**//(1). Just pass the same arguments to
 +//**killall**// that you would pass to
 +//**kill**//.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ killall bash # SIGTERM
 +darkstar:~$ killall -s 9 bash # SIGKILL
 +darkstar:~$ killall -s 1 bash # SIGHUP
 +darkstar:~$ killall -s HUP bash # SIGHUP
 +</code>
 ===== top ===== ===== top =====
 +
 +So far we've learned how to look at the active processes for a moment
 +in time, but what if we want to monitor them for an extended period?
 +//**top**//(1) allows us to do just that. It
 +displays an ordered list of the processes on your system, along with
 +vital information about them, and updates periodically. By default,
 +processes are ordered by their CPU percentage and updates occur every
 +three seconds.
 +
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ top
 +top - 16:44:15 up 26 days,  5:53,  5 users,  load average: 0.08, 0.03, 0.03
 +Tasks: 122 total,   1 running, 119 sleeping,   0 stopped,   2 zombie
 +Cpu(s):  3.4%us,  0.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 95.5%id,  0.1%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.2%si, 0.0%st
 +Mem:   3058360k total,  2853780k used,   204580k free,   154956k buffers
 +Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,  2082652k cached
 +
 +  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 +    1 root      20   0  3928  632  544 S    0  0.0   0:00.99 init               
 +    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd           
 +    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.82 migration/0        
 +    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 ksoftirqd/0        
 +    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:11.22 events/0           
 +    9 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.19 work_on_cpu/0      
 +   11 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 khelper            
 +  102 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:02.04 kblockd/0          
 +  105 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   1:20.08 kacpid             
 +  106 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.92 kacpi_notify       
 +  175 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ata/0              
 +  177 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ata_aux            
 +  178 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksuspend_usbd      
 +  184 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.02 khubd              
 +  187 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kseriod            
 +  242 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:03.37 pdflush            
 +  243 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:02.65 kswapd0
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +
 +The man page has helpful details on how to interact with
 +//**top**// such as changing its delay interval, the
 +order processes are displayed, and even how to terminate processes
 +right from within //**top**// itself.
 ===== cron ===== ===== cron =====
 +
 +
 +
 +Ok, so we've learned many different ways of viewing the active
 +processes on our system and means of signalling them, but what if we
 +want to run a process periodically? Fortunately, Slackware includes
 +just the thing, **//crond//**(8). cron runs
 +processes for every user on the schedule that user demands. This makes
 +it very useful for processes that need to be run periodically, but
 +don't require full daemonization, such as backup scripts. Every user
 +gets their own entry in the cron database, so non-root users can
 +periodically run processes too.
 +
 +
 +In order to run programs from cron, you'll need to use the
 +**//crontab//**(1). The man page lists a variety of
 +ways to do this, but the most common method is to pass the
 +//-e// argument. This will lock the user's entry in the cron
 +database (to prevent it from being overwritten by another program),
 +then open that entry with whatever text editor is specified by the
 +VISUAL environment variable. On Slackware systems, this is typically
 +the **//vi//** editor. You may need to refer to the
 +chapter on **//vi//** before continuing.
 +
 +
 +The cron database entries may seem a little archaic at first, but they
 +are highly flexible. Each uncommented line is processed by
 +**//crond//** and the command specified is run if
 +all the time conditions match.
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +darkstar:~$ crontab -e
 +# Keep current with slackware
 +30 02 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsync-slackware64.sh 1>/dev/null 2>&1
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +As mentioned before, the syntax for cron entries is a little difficult
 +to understand at first, so let's look at each part individually. From
 +left to right, the different sections are: Minute, Hour, Day, Month,
 +Week Day, and Command. Any asterisk <key>'*'</key> entry matches
 +every minute, hour, day, and so on. So from the example above, the
 +command is //"/usr/local/bin/rsync-slackware64.sh 1>/dev/null 2>&1"//, and
 +it runs every weekday or every week of every month at 2:30 a.m.
 +
 +
 +**//crond//** will also e-mail the local user with
 +any output the command generates. For this reason, many tasks have
 +their output redirected to ''/dev/null'', a special
 +device file that immediately discards everything it receives. In order
 +to make it easier for you to remember these rules, you might wish to
 +paste the following commented text at the top of your own cron entries.
 +
 +
 +<code>
 +
 +# Redirect everything to /dev/null with:
 +#   1>/dev/null 2>&1
 +#
 +# MIN HOUR DAY MONTH WEEKDAY COMMAND
 +</code>
 +
 +
 +By default, Slackware includes a number of entries and comments in
 +root's crontab. These entries make it easier to setup periodic system
 +tasks by creating a number of directories in ''/etc''
 +corresponding to how often the tasks should run. Any script placed
 +within these directories will be run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
 +The names should be self-explanatory:
 +''/etc/cron.hourly'',
 +''/etc/cron.daily'',
 +''/etc/cron.weekly'', and
 +''/etc/cron.monthly''.
 +
 +====== Chapter Navigation ======
 +
 +**Previous Chapter: [[slackbook:bash|The Bourne Again Shell]]**
 +
 +**Next Chapter: [[slackbook:xwindow_system|The X Window System]]**
  
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