psa

Processes Status Analysis version 0.5

Processes Status Analysis (psa) cross-platform application that allows different analyses over the operating system's processes.

Parameters

• -a : list all processes information from current processes snapshot.
• -e [no] : top [no] most expensive memory consuming processes | top 10 by default
• -k <name|pid> [--filter-param <value>] : kill specific process by PID or name, optionally filtering by command line parameter
• -o <name|pid> [-d|--details] [--filter-param <value>] : info for process(es) matching name/PID, optionally with details and command line filter
• -d, --details : show detailed process information (used with -o)
• --filter-param <value> : filter by command line substring (used with -k or -o)
• --pid <pid> : identify process information by PID (full process report)
• -t [pid] : tree snapshot of current processes or of the subprocesses of a specified process PID.

Usage

All the results can be redirected within a file. Usage examples.

psa -t                                           // full snapshot tree
psa -t 768                                       // tree with the children processes of the process PID 768
psa -o chrome                                    // find how much memory uses your Chrome!   o_O
psa -t > processes_tree.txt                      // full snapshot tree redirection to a file
psa -e 20 > top_expensive_processes.txt          // top most 'expensive' processes and save information in a file
psa -k notep                                     // kill all the processes containing 'notep' within the process name
psa -k 7891                                      // kill the process having PID = 7891
psa -k chrome --filter-param "network"           // kill all processes containing 'chrome' in name and 'network' in command line
psa -o chrome --details                          // show details and command line for all processes matching 'chrome'
psa -o 1234 --details                            // show details and command line for process with PID 1234
psa -od 1234                                     // short form with PID filter
psa -o -d 1234                                   // equivalent short form with PID filter
psa -o chrome --filter-param network             // show all Chrome processes with 'network' in their command line
psa -o chrome --filter-param network --details   // same, with detailed process information
psa --pid 1234                                   // print full process report for PID 1234

Compatibility

The currently supported operating systems:

• Windows
• Linux - (Debian tested) requiers libprocps-dev library

GoogleTest Submodule

This repository uses GoogleTest as a submodule for unit testing. After cloning, run:

git submodule update --init --recursive

to fetch the test dependencies into external/gtest.

If you are updating or changing the submodule, commit the .gitmodules file and the submodule reference, but do not commit the contents of external/gtest itself.

Development Environment

Compiler Requirements:

• A C++20-compliant compiler is required (e.g., MSVC 2019/2022, GCC 10+, Clang 11+).

Windows:

• Visual Studio 2019 or newer recommended.
• Enable C++20 in your project settings.

Linux:

• GCC 10+ or Clang 11+ required.

• Install build essentials and required libraries:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake libprocps-dev

• To build with CMake:

  mkdir build && cd build
  cmake .. -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=20
  make

Unit Testing

Unit tests in this project use GoogleTest. You can set up GoogleTest in one of two ways:

1. Submodule (recommended for Visual Studio users):

   • After cloning, run: git submodule update --init --recursive
   • This will fetch GoogleTest into external/gtest for direct Visual Studio integration.

2. CMake (for CMake-based builds):

   • CMake will automatically download and build GoogleTest as needed when you configure the project.

If you use the submodule, do not commit the contents of external/gtest—only the submodule reference and .gitmodules file.

Contributing

People on the project: @SilviuArdelean (Silviu-Marius Ardelean)