IPCS(1) 						    BSD General Commands Manual 						   IPCS(1)

NAME

     ipcs -- report System V interprocess communication facilities status

SYNOPSIS

     ipcs [-abcmopqstMQSTy] [-C core] [-N system] [-u user]

DESCRIPTION

     The ipcs utility provides information on System V interprocess communication (IPC) facilities on the system.

     The options are as follows:

     -a      Show the maximum amount of information possible when displaying active semaphores, message queues, and shared memory segments.  (This
	     is shorthand for specifying the -b, -c, -o, -p, and -t options.)

     -b      Show the maximum allowed sizes for active semaphores, message queues, and shared memory segments.	The ``maximum allowed size'' is
	     the maximum number of bytes in a message on a message queue, the size of a shared memory segment, or the number of semaphores in a
	     set of semaphores.

     -c      Show the creator's name and group for active semaphores, message queues, and shared memory segments.

     -m      Display information about active shared memory segments.

     -o      Show outstanding usage for active message queues, and shared memory segments.  The ``outstanding usage'' is the number of messages in
	     a message queue, or the number of processes attached to a shared memory segment.

     -p      Show the process ID information for active semaphores, message queues, and shared memory segments.  The ``process ID information'' is
	     the last process to send a message to or receive a message from a message queue, the process that created a semaphore, or the last
	     process to attach or detach a shared memory segment.

     -q      Display information about active message queues.

     -s      Display information about active semaphores.

     -t      Show access times for active semaphores, message queues, and shared memory segments.  The access times is the time of the last con-
	     trol operation on an IPC object, the last send or receive of a message, the last attach or detach of a shared memory segment, or the
	     last operation on a semaphore.

     -C core
	     Extract values associated with the name list from the specified core instead of the default /dev/kmem.  Implies -y.

     -M      Display system information about shared memory.

     -N system
	     Extract the name list from the specified system instead of the default /boot/kernel/kernel.  Implies -y.

     -Q      Display system information about messages queues.

     -S      Display system information about semaphores.

     -T      Display system information about shared memory, message queues and semaphores.

     -y      Use the kvm(3) interface instead of the sysctl(3) interface to extract the required information.  If ipcs is to operate on the run-
	     ning system, using kvm(3) will require read privileges to /dev/kmem.

     -u user
	     Display information about IPC mechanisms owned by user.  User specification can be in the form of a numeric UID or a login name.

     If none of the -M, -m, -Q, -q, -S, or -s options are specified, information about all active IPC facilities is listed.

RESTRICTIONS

     System data structures may change while ipcs is running; the output of ipcs is not guaranteed to be consistent.

FILES

     /dev/kmem		  default kernel memory
     /boot/kernel/kernel  default system name list

SEE ALSO

     ipcrm(1)

AUTHORS

     Thorsten Lockert <tholo@sigmasoft.com>

BUGS

     This manual page is woefully incomplete, because it does not at all attempt to explain the information printed by ipcs.

BSD
								  March 24, 2004							       BSD