Linux From Scratch - Version 6.4

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.50. Psmisc-22.6

The Psmisc package contains programs for displaying information about running processes.

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB

6.50.1. Installation of Psmisc

Prepare Psmisc for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=""

The meaning of the configure options:

--exec-prefix=""

This ensures that the Psmisc binaries will install into /bin instead of /usr/bin. This is the correct location according to the FHS, because some of the Psmisc binaries are used by the LFS-Bootscripts package.

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

There is no reason for the pstree and pstree.x11 programs to reside in /bin. Therefore, move them to /usr/bin: 

mv -v /bin/pstree* /usr/bin

By default, Psmisc's pidof program is not installed. This usually is not a problem because it is installed later in the Sysvinit package, which provides a better pidof program. If Sysvinit will not be used for a particular system, complete the installation of Psmisc by creating the following symlink: 

ln -sv killall /bin/pidof

6.50.2. Contents of Psmisc

Installed programs: fuser, killall, oldfuser, peekfd, pstree, and pstree.x11 (link to pstree)

Short Descriptions

fuser

Reports the Process IDs (PIDs) of processes that use the given files or file systems

killall

Kills processes by name; it sends a signal to all processes running any of the given commands

oldfuser

Reports the Process IDs (PIDs) of processes that use the given files or file systems

peekfd

Peek at file descriptors of a running process, given its PID

pstree

Displays running processes as a tree

pstree.x11

Same as pstree, except that it waits for confirmation before exiting