[mdlug] Difference between ps aux & ps auxw

[Aaron Kulkis]

Mat Enders wrote:
> I always use ps aux I am reading a book that says to use ps auxw.  I can
> not see the difference in the output.  And I can not tell what the
> difference is from reading the man page.
> 
> menders-laptop menders # ps auxw | grep [U]SER
> USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
> menders-laptop menders # ps aux | grep [U]SER
> USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
> menders-laptop menders # man ps
> 


according to the ps(1) manpage:

	w      Wide output. Use this option twice for unlimited width.

You're not going to see a difference looking at the headers.
I means that the command lines displayed will have a wider field width before being truncated.

Looking at only the column headers isn't going to show you a difference in output.