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View Running Processes from the Command Line

In this hands-on lab, we will practice finding and viewing processes running on a Linux system. Being able to locate a particular process and view its status is a fundamental component of systems administration.

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Labs

Path Info

Level
Clock icon Beginner
Duration
Clock icon 45m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 19, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Determine How Many Processes Are Currently Running

    Run the following command:

    ps aux | grep -v grep | wc -l
    
  2. Challenge

    Determine the Current System Load

    Run one of the following commands:

    uptime
    
    cat /proc/loadavg
    
  3. Challenge

    Determine How Many Processes Are Running as cloud_user

    Run the following command:

    ps -U cloud_user | wc -l
    
  4. Challenge

    Determine the PID of the xfce4-session Process

    Run the following command:

    ps aux | grep xfce4-session | grep -v grep
    
  5. Challenge

    Determine How Many Threads the xfce4-session Process Is Using

    View the current threads reported in the PID's status. Replace <PID_VALUE> with the PID value obtained from the last objective (the value after cloud_u+):

    cat /proc/<PID_VALUE>/status | grep Threads
    
  6. Challenge

    Write a Small Shell Script that Returns the Number of Threads in a Process

    Create a new file named /home/cloud_user/bin/threads.sh, and add the following script:

    #!/bin/bash
     
    if [ -n $1 ]
    then
      _pid=$(ps aux | grep -E "$1\$" | grep -v grep | grep -v threads.sh | awk '{print $2}')
      cat /proc/$_pid/status | grep Threads
    fi
    

    Make the script executable with chmod u+x bin/threads.sh.

    Determine the number of threads the xfce4-session process is running with ./bin/threads.sh xfce4-session.

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