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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihdev!pdg
From: pdg@ihdev.UUCP (P. D. Guthrie)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: ps bug ?
Message-ID: <505@ihdev.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 15:45:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ihdev.505
Posted: Wed Feb  5 15:45:14 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 06:12:03 EST
References: <738@houxu.UUCP>
Reply-To: pdg@ihdev.UUCP (55224-P. D. Guthrie)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 40

In article <738@houxu.UUCP> rbc@houxu.UUCP (R.CONNAGHAN) writes:
>Help, is this a bug with the "ps" command?
>
>Type at UNIX prompt:
>
>    ps -F
>
>Get error message and core file:
>
>    Bad system call - core dumped
>
> ...
>
>The on-line manual page explains the F flag as follows:
>
>    -F	Print the fair share group process assocation.
>
> ....
>I have two questions:
>	Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?
>	What does the "-F" flag mean?
>-- 

I think this is actually quite simple.  A fair share group is "a group of
processes associated with the same resource consumption rate" (AT&T BLTJ
October 1984 V63. No.8 Part 2, _The_Fair_Share_Scheduler_, G.J. Henry)
which more or less boils down to a replacement for the standard UNIX
scheduler.  The -F flag obviously displays the group the the process is
in.  Actually most of our local machines do use this beast, and `ps -F'
does work as advertised.  The problem is that ps tries to do an illegal
system call to get fsg info (which of course your kernel knows nothing
about).  The fix is to conditionally compile this code in, depending on
whether fsg's exist on your system or not to use it at all.  Hope this
helps.

-- 

Paul Guthrie				`When the going gets weird,
ihnp4!ihdev!pdg				 The weird turn pro'
					  - H. Thompson