Command line ps has stopped working correctly after an update

command linememory

I use to be able to run this ps command from the terminal:

ps -u whoami -o pid,rss,command

But recently the RSS size returned are all 0!

ps -u `whoami` -o pid,rss,command
158      0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock
159      0 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
160      0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
165      0 /usr/sbin/pboard

unless I run it with sudo

sudo ps -u `whoami` -o pid,rss,command
158  17556 /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock
159  22488 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
160  82176 /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
165    840 /usr/sbin/pboard

Does anyone know how to fix this or how to get the original functionality back?

Best Answer

I have 10.6.7 and your

ps -u `whoami` -o pid,rss,command

producing

  PID    RSS COMMAND
  180    696 /sbin/launchd
  185  19108 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
  189     32 /usr/sbin/pboard
  .... etc ....

so, the problem is in your system. So, what return this:

ls -l /bin/ps

should this

-r-sr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  134816 12 okt  2010 /bin/ps

if your ps has other permissions, repair with:

sudo chown root /bin/ps
sudo chgrp wheel /bin/ps
sudo chmod 4555 /bin/ps
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