Quick Tip

Master Your `ps` Output with `awk` for Focused Process Info

Challenge: The standard ps command can produce a lot of information, making it difficult to quickly find specific details about running processes.

The Solution: Combine ps with awk to filter and format the output for precisely the columns you need.

ps aux | awk '{print $1, $2, $11}'

Why it works: awk allows you to specify which fields (columns) from the `ps` output you want to display, making it easy to extract information like user, PID, and command name.

Pro-Tip: To get a more readable output, use ps -eo user,pid,cmd and then pipe it to awk, or use ps aux | awk 'NR==1{print} NR>1{print $1, $2, $11}' to include the header row.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 6/2/2026