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From: "Albert D. Cahalan" <acahalan@cs.uml.edu>
Message-Id: <200111042045.fA4Kjlo118464@saturn.cs.uml.edu>
Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: dot-proc interface [was: /proc stuff]
To: spacewalker@altern.org (SpaceWalker)
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 15:45:46 -0500 (EST)
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In-Reply-To: <3BE580E4.F17AF70C@altern.org> from "SpaceWalker" at Nov 04, 2001 06:54:44 PM
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SpaceWalker writes:

> A good reason could be that a simple ps -aux uses hundreds of system
> calls to get the list of all the processes ...

First of all, "ps -aux" isn't correct usage. It is accepted only
as long as you don't have a username "x". Try "ps aux" instead.
(good versions of ps will print a warning -- use Debian)

Second of all, if you want a really fast ps, look here:
http://lwn.net/2000/0420/a/atomicps.html