>> Mind sharing what "ps -fj", "ps -lf", and "ps j" look like?
>> The standard tty is 80x24 BTW, and we already have serious
>> problems due to ever-expanding tty names.
>>
>> How about a default limit of 9999, to be adjusted by
>> sysctl as needed?
>
> 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.
BTW, let's start with: not only "ps" is affected.
Off the top of my head: netstat, fuser, top, pstree...
I almost put 99999, but then I realized that that's silly.
For years Linux had a hard limit of about 4000 processes,
and not many people complained. It sure would be nice to
gain back a few of the columns lost to other stuff, so
that people could once again see command arguments.
The two real-word usage examples close at hand:
a. My full GNOME desktop has 48 processes.
b. The main UNIX shell server for CS students
at this university has 79 processes.
(Tru64, several hundred CS students, 2:25 am)
For "ps", adjustable width is a trivial addition.
Notice the UID ("ps -l", "ps -lf) handling, and
notice what signals ("ps s") do on a wide screen.
I could also just let the output be ugly, since
no normal system will have so many processes.
The problem is screen space, pure and simple. If the
default limit goes to over 1 billion, then "ps" output
must wrap lines. There is no alternative, unless you
think "System going down to reset PID numbers!" is OK.
> 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)
Linux (and all SysV if I remember right) has 4 columns
of PID info that would need to expand:
UID PID PPID PGID SID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
albert 12975 12966 12975 12975 0 Aug02 pts/1 00:00:00 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)
Eeew. That's broken; it won't display right on a normal
80x24 terminal. Linux "ps -lf" will just barely fit.
> $ 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)
For historic reasons, Linux has a whopping 5 columns
of PID info for this format:
PPID PID PGID SID TTY TPGID STAT UID TIME COMMAND
1 770 770 770 tty1 12893 S 1000 0:00 -bash
770 12893 12893 770 tty1 12893 S 1000 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/X11/st
> 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).
Increase the limit on this server if you wish. Problem?
I only suggest 9999 as the default. (which would actually
be just enough for you)
> 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.
It's not just "ps", and I'm not saying you couldn't
adjust your system for a higher limit. I do think that
the out-of-box default shouldn't screw up formatting.
If you need to go past 9999, then you'll want to tweak
a few other settings as well. Low process counts are
the common case, and shouldn't be hurt by the fact that
a few people wish to run a billion processes.
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