Have you ever wanted to know which programs or applications are currently running in your UNIX/Linux system. If you are like me, I searched everywhere for this helpful command. The ps command will display a listing of your current process associated with your login:

Code/Command:
ps



If you want to see system wide process (kinda like task manager in windows) execute the following command:

Code/Command:
ps -aux



or

Code/Command:
ps -ef



you will see something like this:
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:01 init [3]
root 2 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [migration/0]
root 3 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root 4 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/0]
root 5 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [migration/1]
root 6 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root 7 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/1]
root 8 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [migration/2]
root 9 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/2]
root 10 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/2]
root 11 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [migration/3]
root 12 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/3]
root 13 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/3]
root 14 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [events/0]
root 15 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [events/1]
root 16 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [events/2]
root 17 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [events/3]
root 18 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [khelper]
root 19 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [kthread]
root 24 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:01:25 [kblockd/0]
root 25 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:41 [kblockd/1]
root 26 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [kblockd/2]
root 27 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:41 [kblockd/3]
root 28 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [kacpid]
root 120 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [khubd]
root 178 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [pdflush]
root 179 19 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:02 [pdflush]
root 180 1 0 Aug15 ? 00:00:00 [kswapd0]