- How to Check Which User is Running a Process on Linux and Windows — Command Line and Task Manager Tools
- Checking Running Processes on Linux
- Using the “ps aux” Command
- Filtering Processes by User Using “ps -u” Command
- Using “ps -f -u ” Command
- Using “ps -e” or “ps -A” Command
- Combining Commands
- Using “htop” Command
- Using Quotes to Specify User
- Using “/proc” Filesystem
- Checking Running Processes on Windows
- Using Task Manager
- Using the Users Tab in Task Manager
- Using “TList” Command
- Using “Get-Process” Command
- Using “IncludeUserName” Parameter
- Using C# to Determine User
- Using ProcMon
- Additional Tips and Tricks
- Other helpful code examples for checking which user is running a process include «ps -f -u » for Linux and «WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name» in C# for Windows
- Conclusion
- How to find PID’s user name in Linux?
- 6 Answers 6
- How to determine who started a process? [duplicate]
- 1 Answer 1
- Using top to see processes run by a user on behalf of sudo
- 2 Answers 2
How to Check Which User is Running a Process on Linux and Windows — Command Line and Task Manager Tools
Learn how to check which user is running a process on Linux and Windows systems using command-line tools and Task Manager. Use «ps aux» command for Linux and «Get-Process» command for Windows.
As a system administrator or a developer, knowing which user is running a process on a Linux or Windows system can be extremely helpful for troubleshooting and system management. In this post, we will provide you with information on how to check which user is running a process on linux and windows systems using command-line tools and Task Manager.
Checking Running Processes on Linux
Linux provides numerous ways to check running processes, and we will explore some of the most common command-line tools.
Using the “ps aux” Command
The “ps aux” command is a popular Linux command used to display information about all running processes. Simply open the terminal window and type “ps aux” to see a list of all the running processes on the system.
Filtering Processes by User Using “ps -u” Command
To see processes owned by a specific user, run “ps -u ” command in the terminal window. This will display all the processes owned by the specified user.
Using “ps -f -u ” Command
The “ps -f -u ” command will list all processes for a specific user. This command provides more detailed information about the processes, such as the process ID, parent process ID, CPU usage, and memory usage.
Using “ps -e” or “ps -A” Command
The “ps -e” or “ps -A” command displays all active Linux processes. This command provides information about all the processes running on the system, including their process ID, parent process ID, CPU usage, and memory usage.
Combining Commands
The ps command in Linux can also be combined with other commands such as top, htop, and pgrep to list running processes. For example, “ps aux | grep
” will list all processes containing the specified process name.
Using “htop” Command
The htop command in Linux allows users to filter processes by user. Simply open the terminal window and type “htop”, then press “F6” to filter processes by user.
Using Quotes to Specify User
Using double quotes in Linux command lines lets the interpreter know the user running the command. For example, “ps -u “ «” provides the same results as “ps -u ”.
Using “/proc” Filesystem
The /proc filesystem in Linux can be used to determine which groups a running process is in. Simply open the terminal window and type “ls -l /proc/
/”. This will display information about the process, including the user and group ID.
Checking Running Processes on Windows
Windows also provides numerous ways to check running processes, and we will explore some of the most common methods.
Using Task Manager
To see all running processes on Windows, open Task Manager and go to the details page. In the Name column, look for the process name and in the User Name column, see the user running the process.
Using the Users Tab in Task Manager
The Users tab in Windows Task Manager displays all processes executed by an individual user. This tab provides information about the user, the number of running processes, and the total amount of CPU and memory usage.
Using “TList” Command
The TList command can be used to find the Process ID of a running process on Windows. Simply open the command prompt and type “tlist
” to display the process ID.
Using “Get-Process” Command
In Windows, you can also use the “Get-Process” command to find the owner of a process. Simply open the PowerShell and type “Get-Process
| Format-Table ProcessName, UserName” to display the process name and the user running the process.
Using “IncludeUserName” Parameter
The “IncludeUserName” parameter in the Get-Process command requires elevated user rights. To use this command, open PowerShell with administrator privileges and type “Get-Process
Using C# to Determine User
WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name can be used in C# to determine which user the current process is running as. This provides the username and the domain name.
Using ProcMon
Advanced users can use ProcMon to view what user a process or program is running as. ProcMon is a powerful tool that provides detailed information about system activity, including process and thread creation, file system activity, and registry activity.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Here are some additional tips and tricks to help you better manage your systems:
- To view the processes owned by a specific user in Unix/Linux, use the “top -U [username]” command.
- In Linux, you can specify multiple usernames separated by a comma to view processes for multiple users.
- The Applications tab of Task Manager only shows desktop applications, while the Processes tab displays all running processes.
- The ps command can also display information about system resource usage.
- The “pgrep” command can be used with ps to list processes matching a specific pattern.
- Windows Server also allows users to view running processes in Task Manager.
- The top command in Linux provides real-time stats of running processes.
Other helpful code examples for checking which user is running a process include «ps -f -u » for Linux and «WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name» in C# for Windows
In shell, see what user a process is running as code example
Conclusion
Checking which user is running a process can be done using different methods on Linux and Windows systems. Using the appropriate command-line tools or Task Manager can help troubleshoot and manage system resources effectively. By using the tips and tricks provided in this post, users can gain a better understanding of their systems and improve their overall system management skills.
How to find PID’s user name in Linux?
Can you help me to find the PID’s user name? Sometimes my server has high load. When I run top -c , I cannot even find the owner of a process which is causing load on the server.
We were experiencing server load issue due to bulk php process, so that i had this question, we can then find them using ‘lsof -p xxxx’.
6 Answers 6
I’m surprised nobody has put this up yet:
Try the -p option of the ps command.
For instance, if you have PID 1234 , run:
The -u was added to include the username in the output.
You can then use grep or awk , etc. to extract the info you want.
You were a tick faster than me. You’re waking up earlier? Depending on the Linux distrbution, ps u 1234 (Debian) or just ps 1234 (Android with Busybox) also works.
This works nicely with pgrep when you only have the process name (not the PID) or when you want to see the owners of multiple processes with a similar name: ps -u -p $(pgrep yourProcessName)
/proc/processID/status will have the information about user’s ID which you can use to find the username.
uid=$(awk '/^Uid:/' /proc/YOUR_PROCESS_ID/status) getent passwd "$uid" | awk -F: ''
Replace YOUR_PROCESS_ID with your process ID number.
The best answer, since it’s the fastest, especially if changed to : getent passwd $(< /proc/"$uid"/loginuid) | sed 's/\:.*$//'
Get only username from a PID:
PID=136323 USERNAME="$( ps -o uname= -p "$" )"
You can also combine it with a pgrep . In this example we show all usernames executing some .php file:
pgrep -f '\.php' | xargs -r ps -o uname= -p | sort -u
Find only one username running a certain unique process:
USERNAME mt24"> )" data-controller="se-share-sheet" data-se-share-sheet-title="Share a link to this answer" data-se-share-sheet-subtitle="" data-se-share-sheet-post-type="answer" data-se-share-sheet-social="facebook twitter " data-se-share-sheet-location="2" data-se-share-sheet-license-url="https%3a%2f%2fcreativecommons.org%2flicenses%2fby-sa%2f4.0%2f" data-se-share-sheet-license-name="CC BY-SA 4.0" data-s-popover-placement="bottom-start">Share )" title="">Improve this answer )">edited Sep 25, 2018 at 0:30 answered Sep 25, 2018 at 0:21 Jeroen Vermeulen - MageHostJeroen Vermeulen - MageHost 988 8 silver badges 9 bronze badges