Subject: kern/32809: spurious 'x' flag in ps output
To: None <kern-bug-people@netbsd.org, gnats-admin@netbsd.org,>
From: Pavel Cahyna <pcah8322@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 02/12/2006 23:45:00
>Number:         32809
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       spurious 'x' flag in ps output
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    kern-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Feb 12 23:45:00 +0000 2006
>Originator:     Pavel Cahyna
>Release:        NetBSD 3.0_RC5
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: NetBSD beta 3.0_RC5 NetBSD 3.0_RC5 (EV56) #3: Mon Dec 12 20:28:20 CET 2005 pavel@beta:/usr/src/sys/arch/alpha/compile/EV56 alpha
Architecture: alpha
Machine: alpha
>Description:
While xmms was started, I typed ps aux in a terminal window and
noticed this line:
USER   PID %CPU %MEM   VSZ   RSS TTY   STAT STARTED    TIME COMMAND
...
pavel 1326  0.0  2.1  6344 12104 ?     Rxsa 11:22PM 2:35.55 xmms
                                        ^
ps(1) says that 'x' means "The process is running under
systrace(1)". But I never used systrace... what's happening here?
>How-To-Repeat:
unknown, appears intermittently:
$ while true; do ps -p 1326; done                 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.19 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Ssa  3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.20 xmms 
 PID TTY STAT    TIME COMMAND
1326 ?   Rxsa 3:50.20 xmms 

I saw the galeon process doing this too. (Both xmms and galeon use SA.)
>Fix:
unknown.