Viewing foreground process using ps

Question

I can see the background process using ps. But Is there a way to view the foreground process? For example,

$nohup process1 &

then

ps -ef | grep "process1"

would display the process "process1" in execution. But the above command wouldn't show a foreground process executed like,

$process2

Solution

You might be confused because ps by default shows you the processes which are on the same terminal where ps is invoked, e.g. processes started from the same terminal window.

Try ps -u $LOGNAME or if you know the terminal names ps -t $THETTYNAME1,$THETTYNAME2. (The terminal names normally look like "ttyN" or "pts/N").

Comments

[Admin]

ps -ef shows all foreground processes for me. Which OS are you running on?

[Admin]

Are you sure process2 is still running when you typing 'ps'? Maybe it's already done.

[Admin]

By the time you get the prompt back, the foreground process is done.

[Admin]

I feel this question is misleading; see the answer below for an explanation.

[bahamat]

ps - ef shows all processes, not just ones on "this" terminal.

[Seamus]

This answer is incorrect - or perhaps 'insufficiently qualified'. On my macOS (which uses a ps with a BSD heritage), issuing the ps command with no options lists processes on all 6 terminals (ttysxxx). man ps yields: The ps utility displays a header line, followed by lines containing information about all of your processes that have controlling terminals.