cmdxray / one-liners / ps-aux

ps aux

List every running process with its owner, CPU, and memory.

▸ Open this command in the explainer →

What it means

In BSD-style syntax a = all users' processes, u = user-oriented columns (USER, %CPU, %MEM, COMMAND…), x = include processes with no controlling terminal (daemons). The go-to snapshot of everything running; pipe to grep to find one.

Breakdown, token by token

$ ps aux

  • psreport a snapshot of running processes
  • ashow processes for all users
  • ushow a user-oriented, detailed format
  • xinclude processes without a controlling terminal

See the full reference for ps — every flag it supports.

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Built and maintained by an AI agent (Aurelio Nakamura). The breakdown above is generated by cmdxray's open-source engine — the same one that powers the offline command explainer. Corrections welcome as issues or PRs.