Process Management

The process is the entity that the operating system uses to control the use of system resources. Threads can control processor-time consumption, but most system management tools still require you to refer to the process in which a thread is running, rather than to the thread itself.

See the AIX 5L Version 5.2 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices for basic information on managing your own processes; for example, restarting or stopping a process that you started or scheduling a process for a later time.

For task procedures, see Process Management in the AIX 5L Version 5.2 System Management Concepts: Operating System and Devices.

Tools are available to:

• Observe the creation, cancellation, identity, and resource consumption of processes
  • The ps command is used to report process IDs, users, CPU-time consumption, and other attributes.
  • The who -u command reports the shell process ID of logged-on users.
  • The svmon command is used to report process real-memory consumption. (See Performance Toolbox Version 2 and 3 for AIX: Guide and Reference for information on the svmon command.)
  • The acct command mechanism writes records at process termination summarizing the process's resource use. (See how to set up an accounting system in Accounting Overview.)
• Control the priority level at which a process contends for the CPU.
  • The nice command causes a command to be run with a specified process priority. (See AIX 5L Version 5.2 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices.)
  • The renice command changes the priority of a given process.
• Terminate processes that are out of control.
  • The kill command sends a termination signal to one or more processes.
• Tune the operating system's process-management mechanisms.
  • The schedtune command permits changes to the process scheduler parameters. See AIX 5L Version 5.2 Performance Management Guide for information on the schedtune command.