How to view the list of running processes in Linux? What does the ps command display?

In Linux, the ps command is used to view the list of running processes. It displays information about processes running in the system or in the current session.

A simple invocation of ps without parameters will show processes of the current shell:

ps

To see all processes in the system, often the following is used:

ps aux

where:

• a — shows processes of all users,
• u — displays information in a user-friendly format with user details,
• x — includes processes without a controlling terminal.

The ps command shows PID (process ID), user, CPU and memory usage percentages, start time, the command that launched the process, and other parameters.

This is useful for monitoring, diagnostics, and managing processes in the system.