How to display longer username in `ps`

Have you ever had the need to show the full username in ps output? Here is how. Normally in Bash, the ps output truncates an username to 7 characters and a \+ sign, e.g IUSR_60\+. In cases when you absolutely need the full username in ps, this can be pretty annoying. Here is how to display longer usernames in ps
Published on Saturday, 5 February 2022
bash gnu-linux

Have you ever had the need to show the full username in ps output? Here is how. Normally in Bash, the ps output truncates an username to 7 characters and a + sign, e.g IUSR_60+. In cases when you absolutely need the full username in ps, this can be pretty annoying. Here is how to display longer usernames in ps:

To display 20 characters, use user:20:

ps axo user:20

If you also want the PID of the running process, add ,pid: ps axo user:20,pid. You can even add pmem for memory:

ps axo user:20,pid,pmem

Play with it, learn the different options and use what's best in each case.