Linux From Scratch - Version 6.5

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.51. Psmisc-22.8

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

Approximate build time: less than 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.5 MB

6.51.1. 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

6.51.2. Contents of Psmisc

Installed programs: fuser, killall, 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

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