OpenBSD webzine issue #14

2 min read Original article ↗

Shell tips

Know your processes! The ps command can actually provide a lot of information about processes running on your system. Per the man page, in the state column, letters are used to indicate some important information about the processes.

  • c indicates that the process is running in a chroot
  • p tells the process has called pledge() (but not which promises were used)
  • U shows the process has called unveil() and can't unveil() new paths/files anymore
  • u shows the process has called unveil() but it's not locked. It's most likely an issue with how unveil() has been added in the program!
  • X will remind you that you are currently tracing/debugging the process, in case you forgot

Of course, there are many other states, I encourage you to read ps(1) man page to know about all the features it provides.

Note from the editorial team

Note from Solene

I finally catched up all the backlog I gathered over almost six months. I need to make adjustments to the website framework to make it easier to work with for newer issues, I'd like to publish like before, an issue every two months. I'm still super happy of the webzine style and format, it looks old-school and fits the community in some sense. Thanks everyone contributing to OpenBSD and its community!

The webzine is two years old, what a journey! I'm really proud to see it available in 9 different languages (all the issues aren't translated but still). I may change the layout a little but otherwise, it's good to continue like this.