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I want to check out the source code for commands such as ps. It seems to be impossible to search LXR (linux.no) for "ps". Where do I find it?

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2 Answers

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Ps belongs to procps-ng, git repository is here

To fetch it,

git clone git://gitorious.org/procps/procps.git

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Sure, but where is it in the source tree? – TheLegassis Sep 19 '12 at 1:44
@TheLegassis it's a userland tool, what you looking for? – warl0ck Sep 19 '12 at 1:46
Hi warl0ck, so I am interested in how it gets included in every Linux build I used. Is it precompiled? I would like to take a look at the source code and modify it – TheLegassis Sep 19 '12 at 1:50
@TheLegassis yes, procps reads from /proc, proc-ps – warl0ck Sep 19 '12 at 11:08
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Check procps or procps-ng (the latter is used by Debian/Fedora/openSUSE/Arch and other distros).

procps is the package that has a bunch of small useful utilities that give information about processes using the /proc filesystem. The package includes the programs ps, top, vmstat, w, kill, free, slabtop, and skill.

which looks unmaintained and was forked into procps-ng

Debian, Fedora and openSUSE fork of procps. For more information about the former upstream see http://procps.sourceforge.net.

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Renan, I understand.. but where would I find this in Linux source tree? – TheLegassis Sep 19 '12 at 1:42
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@TheLegassis it is not in the Linux source tree (it's userland, not kernel stuff). To get the source code go to the links I gave. – Renan Sep 19 '12 at 2:18
Alright, how does ps get the process information? Through /proc directory or does it use a system call? – TheLegassis Sep 19 '12 at 2:21
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For that type of question, it would be best to just look at the source. – Jim Paris Sep 19 '12 at 3:01
If you want to know how programs obtain information about the system you can use strace. – Kotte Sep 19 '12 at 6:36

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