Processes panel (PS)

The Processes (PS) panel allows you to display information about z/OS UNIX System Services processes.

Command keyword

Access the Process panel with the PS command from any SDSF panel.

Customize the display with parameters

The parameters shown in Table 1 allow you to customize the PS display.
The parameter usage is as follows:
PS ALL|ACTIVE

PS with no parameters displays all z/OS UNIX System Services processes. This is the default.

Consider the following example:
  • PS - Displays the Processes panel, showing all processes.
Table 1. PS Parameters
Parameter Description
ALL ALL displays all z/OS UNIX System Services processes. This is the default.
ACTIVE ACTIVE displays only active processes.

PS command action characters

The action characters for the PS command are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. PS Command Action Characters
Action Character Description
// Block repeat; type // on the first row and another // on the last row to be processed.
= Repeat previous action character or overtype.
+(n) Expand the NP column; n is 4-20. (Use RESET to reset.)
%(exec) Run a REXX exec. (ISPF only)
/ Show column values for row. (ISPF only)
C Cancel the address space that owns the process.
D Display information about processes.
K Kill the process (SIGKILL).
T Kill the process (SIGTERM).

Columns on the PS panel

The columns on the PS panel are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Columns on the PS Panel
Column name Title (Displayed) Width Description
JOBNAME JOBNAME 8 Job name. This is the fixed field. It is ignored on an FLD statement or ISFFLD macro.
JOBID JobID 8 Job ID of the process
STATUS Status 32 Status of the process
OWNERID Owner 8 User ID of owner
STATE State 5 State of the process or of most recently created thread (corresponds to d omvs display)
CPU CPU-Time 8 Compute time in hundredths of seconds
PID PID 10 Process ID
PPID PPID 10 Parent process ID
ASID ASID 5 Address space id
ASIDX ASIDX 5 Address space id in hexadecimal
LATCHPID LatchWaitPID 12 PID on which this process is waiting
COMMAND Command 40 Command that created process
SERVER ServerName 32 Server name
TYPE Type 4 Server type (only when the process is a server)
ACTFILES ActFiles 8 Number of active files (only when the process is a server)
MAXFILES MaxFiles 8 Maximum number of files (only when the process is a server)
TIMEE St-Time 8 Time process was started. In the SDSF task of z/OSMF, this is replaced by the St-DateTime column.
DATEE St-Date 8 Date process was started. In the SDSF task of z/OSMF, this is replaced by the St-DateTime column.
SYSLEVEL SysLevel 25 Level of the operating system
SYSNAME SysName 8 System name where process is executing
SECLABEL SecLabel 8 Security label of the process
DATETIMEE St-DateTime 19 Date and time that execution began. This column is displayed only with the SDSF task of z/OSMF. It combines the information in the St-Date and St-Time columns.
Start of changeZIIPTIMEEnd of change Start of changezIIP-TimeEnd of change Start of change9End of change Start of changeSystem and user compute time on zIIP.End of change
Start of changeRUIDEnd of change Start of changeRUIDEnd of change Start of change8End of change Start of changeProcess real user ID.End of change
Start of changeEUIDEnd of change Start of changeEUIDEnd of change Start of change8End of change Start of changeProcess effective user ID.End of change
Start of changeISFENDEnd of change Start of change.ENDEnd of change Start of change4End of change Start of changeEnd of list marker. All columns that appear after this column will be hidden. Ignored if specified on the ISFFLD macro in ISFPARMS. The title and width cannot be changed using the FLDENT statement or through the ARRANGE command.End of change
Values for State
Table 4. Values for State
Value Description
1 State is for a single thread process
A Message queue receive wait
B Message queue send wait
C Communication system kernel wait
D Semaphore operation wait
E Quiesce frozen
F File system kernel wait
G MVS pause wait
H Process state is for multiple threads and pthread was used to create one of the threads. Process state is obtained from the initial pthread created task (IPT).
I Swapped out
K Other kernel wait (for example, pause or sigsuspend)
L Canceled, parent has performed wait, an still session or process group leader
M Process state is for multiple threads and pthread_create was not used to create any of the multiple threads. Process state is obtained from the most recently created thread.
P Ptrace kernel wait
Q Quiesce termination wait
R Running (not kernel wait)
S Sleeping
T Stopped
W Waiting for child (wait or waitpid callable service)
X Creating new process (fork callable service is running)
Z Canceled and parent has not performed wait (Z for zombie)
Scaling of data
When a value is too large to fit in the available SDSF scales the value using these abbreviations:
Table 5. Scaling of data
Value Description
K Kilo (hexadecimal scaling)
T Thousands (decimal scaling) or Tera (hexadecimal scaling
M Millions (decimal scaling) or Mega (hexadecimal scaling)
B Billions (decimal scaling)
G Giga (hexadecimal scaling)
P Peta (hexadecimal scaling)
KB Kilobytes
MB Megabytes
GB Gigabytes
TB Terabytes
PB Petabytes

Changing the width of the column, with the ARRANGE command, affects the scaling. When filtering on columns that use binary abbreviations (KB, MB, and so forth) you can enter either a number or a number with the abbreviation. For example, 4096 and 4MB are both valid with entering a filter. However, SDSF always displays the value as 4MB.