Question

When running the ps command I get an output like this:

[nick]$ ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 3287 pts/3    00:00:00 bash
12308 pts/3    00:00:00 ps
19544 pts/3    00:00:00 STS
19548 pts/3    00:45:25 java
19753 pts/3    00:04:10 java
21149 pts/3    00:15:25 java

This doesn’t help me that much because I don’t know what each Java process really is. Running ps T gives more information, but now there’s too much!

[nick]$ ps T
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
 3287 pts/3    Ss     0:00 bash
12319 pts/3    R+     0:00 ps T
19544 pts/3    S      0:00 /home/nick/springsource/sts-3.0.0.RELEASE/STS
19548 pts/3    Sl    45:25 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5 -Xms256m -Xmx1536m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -jar /home/nick/springsource/sts-3.0.0.RELEASE//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20120522-1813.jar -os linux -w......
19753 pts/3    Sl     4:10 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,suspend=y,address=localhost:48135 -Dcatalina.base=/home/nick/Documents/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.wst.server.core/tmp3 -Dcatalina.home=/home/nic......
21149 pts/3    Sl    15:25 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,suspend=y,address=localhost:57346 -Dcatalina.base=/home/nick/Documents/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.wst.server.core/tmp5 -Dcatalina.home=/home/nic......

Is there a way of just displaying the filename of the Java package or class being run? Something like this:

[nick]$ ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 3287 pts/3    00:00:00 bash
12308 pts/3    00:00:00 ps
19544 pts/3    00:00:00 STS
19548 pts/3    00:45:25 java abc.jar
19753 pts/3    00:04:10 java def.java
21149 pts/3    00:15:25 java ghi.jar

If this can’t be done with ps arguments, is there a way of achieving it with grep?

Answer 1

What you are looking for is probably jps cli utility or graphical jconsole.