I hope you meant 99999 (since we already have 5 digit PIDs). It would
also seem to me that if it is adjustable, then "ps" would have to handle
it anyway, and making "ps" deal with adjustable size PIDs would be more
complex and error-prone.
Tru64 Unix 5.x uses 19 bit pids (up to 524288, so up to six digits - the
rest of the 32 bits go for cluster node, node sequence, and an unused
sign bit) without significant problems. Their "ps" args aren't an exact
match, but they're close (lots of processes snipped):
$ ps -fj | head -2
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
cmadams 272363 301021 0.0 20:47:46 pts/1 0:00.09 -bash (bash)
$ ps -lf | head -2
F S UID PID PPID %CPU PRI NI RSS WCHAN STARTED TIME COMMAND
80c08001 I 200 272363 301021 0.0 44 0 520K wait 20:47:46 0:00.09 -bash (bash)
$ ps j | head -2
USER PID PPID PGID SESS JOBC S TTY TIME COMMAND
cmadams 272363 301021 272363 272363 0 I pts/1 0:00.09 -bash (bash)
$
I had exactly one problem moving to 5.x with larger PIDs: the free "top"
program (Tru64 doesn't include "top") assumed 5 digit PIDs so the
columns didn't line up until I changed the output format by one column.
I routinely have 1000+ processes running on this server (many of them
short-lived things like POP checks, short CGIs, sendmail background
delivery, etc.), so having a larger PID space is important (having the
same PID reused within 15-30 seconds would be annoying).
I would like to see Linux running on this server (or at least this class
of server), and limiting the number of PIDs because of "ps" formatting
is not the way to go.
-- Chris Adams <cmadams@hiwaay.net> Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/