How to list all background pids in bash

code_fodder picture code_fodder · Sep 18, 2013 · Viewed 20.8k times · Source

Either I am not able to phrase my search correctly or the answer is not easy to find!, but I am trying to figure out how to list all of my background task PIDs. For example:

So far I have found that to list the last PID we use:

$!

But now I want to list the PID of the task before that (if one exists), but I can't find how to do that. Utlimatly I want to list all my background task PIDs.

I know we can also find last job ID with:

%% (last job in list)
%1 (first job in list)
%2 (second job in list)

But the same does not seem to work for process id?

Thanks all :)

Answer

Michael Kazarian picture Michael Kazarian · Sep 18, 2013

Use ps S. For example:

$ vim &
[1] 8263
$ ipython &
[2] 8264
$ ps S
 PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
 3082 pts/0    Ss     0:00 bash
 3137 pts/0    Sl+    0:00 python /usr/bin/ipython
 8207 pts/2    Ss     0:00 bash
 8263 pts/2    T      0:00 vim
 8264 pts/2    Tl     0:00 python /usr/bin/ipython
 8284 pts/2    Tl     0:00 python /usr/bin/ipython
 8355 pts/2    R+     0:00 ps S

If you want get PIDs use below:

$ ps S | awk '{print  $  1 }' | grep -E '[0-9]'
3082
3137
8207
8263
8264
8284
8357
8358
835

Also you can use jobs -l But it show background processes only for current session.