Process history in Unix/Linux systems

logsprocessps

I know that ps -efl shows running processes on *nix systems.

I would like to check history of the (past) processes that have been run on a particular machine, preferably with all the information ps provides (i.e. %CPU, %MEM).

What command line utilities can I use, is this information stored somewhere similarly to .bash_history file?

Best Answer

Try atop. It can keep a configurable history of various system information (processes, and CPU, memory, disk and network usage). Note: it cannot record everything, of course; it just takes "snapshots" periodically.

EDIT: In case this is not clear, there is an atop daemon that does the periodical snapshots, stored in /var/log/atop (directory used under Debian).

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