pidtree

What is pidtree?

The pidtree npm package is a Node.js module that allows you to list all running processes in a hierarchical tree structure based on their process IDs (PIDs). It can be used to find parent and child processes of a given PID, which is useful for monitoring and managing system processes programmatically.

What are pidtree's main functionalities?

Get an array of all running processes as a tree

This code sample demonstrates how to retrieve a tree of all running processes. The '-1' argument specifies that the tree should start with the root process. The callback function receives the tree structure or an error.

const pidtree = require('pidtree');
pidtree(-1, function (err, tree) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(tree);
});

Get a tree of child processes for a specific PID

This code sample shows how to get a tree of child processes for a specific PID. Replace '1234' with the PID of the process you want to inspect. The callback function will receive the tree of child processes or an error.

const pidtree = require('pidtree');
const pid = 1234; // Replace with the target PID
pidtree(pid, function (err, tree) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(tree);
});

Other packages similar to pidtree

ps-tree

The ps-tree package is similar to pidtree in that it also provides a way to list child processes of a given PID. However, ps-tree does not create a hierarchical tree structure but instead returns a flat list of child processes.

tree-kill

While tree-kill does not provide a way to list processes, it offers related functionality by allowing users to kill all processes in the tree of a given PID. This is useful for cleaning up child processes when the parent process is terminated.

README

pidtree

🚸 Cross platform children list of a PID.
_{Coded with ❤️ by Simone Primarosa.}

Synopsis

This package is really similar to ps-tree but is faster, safer and provides sub-children results.
Furthermore ps-tree is unmaintained.

Uuh, and a fancy CLI is also available!

Usage

var pidtree = require('pidtree')

// Get childs of current process
pidtree(process.pid, function (err, pids) {
  console.log(pids)
  // => []
})

// Include the given pid in the result array
pidtree(process.pid, {root: true}, function (err, pids) {
  console.log(pids)
  // => [727]
})

// Get all the processes of the System (-1 is a special value of this package)
pidtree(-1, function (err, pids) {
  console.log(pids)
  // => [530, 42, ..., 41241]
})

// Include PPID in the results
pidtree(1, {advanced: true}, function (err, pids) {
  console.log(pids)
  // => [{ppid: 1, pid: 530}, {ppid: 1, pid: 42}, ..., {ppid: 1, pid: 41241}]
})

// If no callback is given it returns a promise instead
const pids = await pidtree(1)
console.log(pids)
// => [141, 42, ..., 15242]

Compatibility

Linux	FreeBSD	NetBSD	SunOS	macOS	Win	AIX
✅	❓	❓	❓	✅	✅	❓

✅ = Working ❓ = Not tested but should work

Please if your platform is not supported file an issue.

CLI

Show a tree of the processes inside your system inside your terminal.

npx pidtree $PPID

Just replace $PPID with one of the pids inside your system.

Or don't pass anything if you want all the pids inside your system.

npx pidtree

To display the output as a list, similar to the one produced from pgrep -P $PID, pass the --list flag.

npx pidtree --list

API

pidtree(pid, [options], [callback]) ⇒ [Promise.<Array.<Object>>]

Get the list of children pids of the given pid.

Kind: global function
Returns: Promise.<Array.<Object>> - Only when the callback is not provided.
Access: public

Param	Type	Default	Description
pid	Number | String		A pid. If -1 will return all the pids.
[options]	Object		Optional options object.
[options.root]	Boolean	false	Include the provided pid in the list. Ignored if -1 is passed as pid.
[callback]	function		Called when the list is ready. If not provided a promise is returned instead.

Related

• pidusage - Cross-platform process cpu % and memory usage of a PID

Authors

• Simone Primarosa - simonepri

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the license file for details.