lfs-book/chapter06/psmisc.xml

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<sect1 id="ch-system-psmisc" xreflabel="Psmisc">
<title>Psmisc-&psmisc-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="psmisc.html"?>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-psmisc"><primary sortas="a-Psmisc">Psmisc</primary></indexterm>

<para>The Psmisc package contains programs for displaying information on
processes.</para>

<screen>&buildtime; 0.1 SBU
&diskspace; 2.2 MB</screen>

<para>Psmisc installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils,
GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Sed.</para>



<sect2>
<title>Installation of Psmisc</title>

<para>Prepare Psmisc for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/</userinput></screen>

<para>The meaning of the configure option:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><userinput>--exec-prefix=/</userinput>: This causes the
binaries to be installed in <filename>/bin</filename> instead of
<filename>/usr/bin</filename>. As the Psmisc programs are often used in
bootscripts, they should be available also when the <filename>/usr</filename>
file system isn't mounted.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

<para>Now install it:</para>

<screen><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

<para>There is no reason for the <filename>pstree</filename> and
<filename>pstree.x11</filename> programs to reside in
<filename class="directory">/bin</filename>. We therefore move them to
<filename class="directory">/usr/bin</filename>. Also, there is no need
for <filename>pstree.x11</filename> to exist as a separate program. We
therefore make it a symbolic link to <filename>pstree</filename>:</para>

<screen><userinput>mv /bin/pstree* /usr/bin
ln -sf pstree /usr/bin/pstree.x11</userinput></screen>

<para>By default Psmisc's <command>pidof</command> program isn't installed.
Generally, this isn't a problem because we later install the Sysvinit package,
which provides a better <command>pidof</command> program. But if you're not
going to use Sysvinit, you should complete the installation of Psmisc by
creating the following symlink:</para>

<screen><userinput>ln -s killall /bin/pidof</userinput></screen>

</sect2>


<sect2 id="contents-psmisc"><title>Contents of Psmisc</title>

<para><emphasis>Installed programs</emphasis>: fuser, killall, pstree and
pstree.x11 (link to pstree)</para>

</sect2>


<sect2><title>Short descriptions</title>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-psmisc fuser"><primary sortas="b-fuser">fuser</primary></indexterm>
<para id="fuser"><command>fuser</command> reports the PIDs of processes that use
the given files or file systems.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-psmisc killall"><primary sortas="b-killall">killall</primary></indexterm>
<para id="killall"><command>killall</command> kills processes by name. It sends a signal
to all processes running any of the given commands.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-psmisc pstree"><primary sortas="b-pstree">pstree</primary></indexterm>
<para id="pstree"><command>pstree</command> displays running processes as a tree.</para>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-psmisc pstree.x11"><primary sortas="b-pstree.x11">pstree.x11</primary></indexterm>
<para id="pstree.x11"><command>pstree.x11</command> same as pstree except that it waits for
confirmation before exiting.</para>

</sect2>



</sect1>