procs

procs is a modern replacement for the ps command, written in Rust. It provides colorized output, tree view, keyword searching, custom column configurations, Docker integration, and pager support for better process inspection.

Installation

# Using cargo (Rust)
cargo install procs

# macOS
brew install procs

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S procs

# Ubuntu/Debian (via snap)
sudo snap install procs

# Nix
nix-env -i procs

# Download prebuilt binary
curl -sSfL https://github.com/dalance/procs/releases/latest/download/procs-x86_64-linux.zip \
    -o procs.zip && unzip procs.zip && mv procs /usr/local/bin/

# Verify installation
procs --version

Basic Usage

# List all processes (like ps aux but prettier)
procs

# Show specific PID
procs 1234

# Show processes by name
procs nginx

# Show processes by multiple keywords
procs "nginx|postgres|redis"

Filtering

# Filter by process name
procs ssh

# Filter by exact PID
procs 1

# Filter by username
procs --or user=root

# Filter by CPU usage (processes using CPU)
procs --sortd cpu

# Case-insensitive search (default)
procs Python

# Show only non-kernel processes
procs --nonnumeric

Tree View

# Show process tree
procs --tree

# Tree view with filtering (shows matching processes and their parents)
procs --tree nginx

# Abbreviated tree (collapse branches)
procs --tree --thread

# Tree rooted at specific PID
procs --tree 1

Watch Mode

# Watch processes in real-time (refreshes periodically)
procs --watch

# Watch with specific interval (seconds)
procs --watch-interval 2

# Watch filtered processes
procs --watch nginx

Custom Columns

# Show only specific columns
procs --insert pid,user,cpu,mem,command

# Available built-in columns:
# pid       - Process ID
# ppid      - Parent process ID
# user      - Username
# group     - Group name
# state     - Process state
# cpu       - CPU usage percentage
# mem       - Memory usage percentage
# rss       - Resident set size
# vsz       - Virtual memory size
# read      - Disk read bytes
# write     - Disk write bytes
# start     - Start time
# time      - CPU time
# command   - Command name
# cmd       - Full command line
# threads   - Thread count
# tcp       - TCP connections
# udp       - UDP connections

Sorting

# Sort by CPU usage (descending)
procs --sortd cpu

# Sort by memory usage (descending)
procs --sortd mem

# Sort by PID (ascending)
procs --sorta pid

# Sort by start time
procs --sortd start

# Sort by resident memory
procs --sortd rss

Color Configuration

# procs uses colors by default based on resource usage
# High CPU/memory = red/yellow
# Normal = green/default

# Disable color output
procs --color=never

# Force color output (for piping)
procs --color=always

# Theme options
procs --theme=dark    # Dark terminal theme
procs --theme=light   # Light terminal theme
procs --theme=auto    # Auto-detect (default)

Pager Support

# procs automatically uses a pager for long output
# Default pager: less

# Disable pager
procs --pager=disable

# Use specific pager
PAGER=less procs

Docker Integration

# Show Docker container information alongside processes
procs --docker

# This adds a Docker column showing:
# - Container name
# - Container ID
# - Container status

# Filter by Docker container
procs --docker my-container-name

# Show only Docker-related processes
procs --docker | head -50

Configuration File

# procs reads configuration from ~/.config/procs/config.toml
# Create the config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/procs

# ~/.config/procs/config.toml

# Default columns to display
[[columns]]
kind = "Pid"

[[columns]]
kind = "User"

[[columns]]
kind = "CpuUsage"

[[columns]]
kind = "MemUsage"

[[columns]]
kind = "RssSize"

[[columns]]
kind = "TcpPort"

[[columns]]
kind = "Command"

# Sort configuration
[sort]
column = 2     # Sort by column index (0-based)
order = "Descending"

# Docker integration
[docker]
path = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"

# Display configuration
[display]
show_self = false      # Don't show procs itself
cut_to_terminal = true # Truncate to terminal width
cut_to_pager = false
color_rss = "ByPercentage"

# Pager
[pager]
mode = "Auto"     # Auto, Always, Disable
command = "less"

Advanced Usage

# Find processes listening on a specific port
procs --tcp 8080

# Find processes with UDP connections
procs --udp 53

# Show thread count
procs --insert pid,user,threads,cpu,mem,command

# Show processes using most memory (top 10)
procs --sortd mem | head -15

# Show processes using most CPU (top 10)
procs --sortd cpu | head -15

# Show processes owned by a specific user
procs root

# Show zombie processes
procs --or state=Z

# Pipe to other tools (force color for grep)
procs --color=always | grep -i python

Comparison with ps

# Traditional ps equivalents:
# ps aux           -> procs
# ps aux --sort=-rss -> procs --sortd rss
# ps axjf          -> procs --tree
# ps -eo pid,user,%cpu,%mem,cmd -> procs --insert pid,user,cpu,mem,cmd
# ps -p 1234       -> procs 1234

# procs advantages over ps:
# - Color-coded output by default
# - Built-in search/filtering
# - Tree view with filtering
# - Docker container awareness
# - TCP/UDP port display
# - Real-time watch mode
# - Configurable via TOML

Shell Integration

# Add alias for common usage patterns
alias ptop='procs --sortd cpu --watch'
alias pmem='procs --sortd mem'
alias ptree='procs --tree'

# Kill process by search (use with caution)
kill $(procs --color=never ssh-agent | awk 'NR>1{print $1}')