In Linux environments with multiple users and long‑running services, understanding which processes belong to which accounts is essential for troubleshooting and capacity planning. Focusing output on a specific user or group makes it easier to spot runaway tasks, stuck daemons, or resource‑heavy applications without scrolling through the entire process table.
Each process is tagged with real and effective user and group identifiers, and common utilities such as ps, pgrep, and top can filter on these attributes. Options like -u and -U select processes based on usernames or user IDs, while -g and -G narrow results to particular groups or process group leaders to match exactly the context being investigated.
Security settings on some distributions restrict how much detail is visible for processes owned by other users, and inspecting system‑wide activity often requires elevated privileges. Using the correct selectors avoids accidentally hiding important processes and helps keep focus on the accounts or groups that matter, especially when working on remote servers or shared Linux systems.
Steps to list processes by user and group in Linux:
- Show processes for a single user with the ps command using both real and effective user selectors.
$ ps -u user -U user PID TTY TIME CMD 1423 ? 00:00:00 systemd 1424 ? 00:00:00 (sd-pam) 1430 ? 00:00:00 pipewire 1431 ? 00:00:00 pipewire-media- 1432 ? 00:00:00 pulseaudio 1434 ? 00:00:00 tracker-miner-f 1437 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon 1439 ? 00:00:00 gnome-keyring-d 1459 ? 00:00:00 gvfsd 1464 ? 00:00:00 gvfsd-fuse ##### snipped #####The -u option lists processes for a specific user by username, while -U filters by real user ID.
-U Display the processes belonging to the specified real user IDs. -u Display the processes belonging to the specified usernames.
user is a real user and group name in the system.
$ id uid=1000(user) gid=1000(user) groups=1000(user),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),121(lpadmin),132(lxd),133(sambashare)
- Show processes for a single group with the ps command using group selectors.
$ ps -g user -G user PID TTY TIME CMD 1418 ? 00:00:00 gdm-session-wor 1423 ? 00:00:00 systemd 1424 ? 00:00:00 (sd-pam) 1430 ? 00:00:00 pipewire 1431 ? 00:00:00 pipewire-media- 1432 ? 00:00:00 pulseaudio 1434 ? 00:00:00 tracker-miner-f 1437 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon 1439 ? 00:00:00 gnome-keyring-d 1459 ? 00:00:00 gvfsd ##### snipped #####The -g option selects by session or process group leader, and -G selects by real group ID or group name.
-G Display information about processes which are running with the specified real group IDs. -g Display information about processes with the specified process group leaders.
- List processes for multiple users at once with the ps command.
$ ps -u user,root -U user,root PID TTY TIME CMD 1 ? 00:00:02 systemd 2 ? 00:00:00 kthreadd 3 ? 00:00:00 rcu_gp 4 ? 00:00:00 rcu_par_gp 6 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:0H-events_highpri 7 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:1-events 8 ? 00:00:00 kworker/u256:0-ext4-rsv-conversion 9 ? 00:00:00 mm_percpu_wq 10 ? 00:00:00 rcu_tasks_rude_ 11 ? 00:00:00 rcu_tasks_trace ##### snipped #####Multiple usernames or IDs can be provided as comma‑separated lists to combine filters for -u, -U, -g, and -G.
- Filter the ps process list by name or user with the grep command.
$ ps -aef | grep avahi avahi 746 1 0 07:06 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon: running [host.local] avahi 815 746 0 07:06 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper user 2403 2184 0 07:12 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto avahi
The grep command filters process output by keyword, which can be a username, group name, or process name.
- Show processes for a specific user interactively with the top command.
$ top -u user top - 07:12:59 up 6 min, 1 user, load average: 0.01, 0.13, 0.09 Tasks: 286 total, 1 running, 285 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu0 : 0.0 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni,100.0 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st %Cpu1 : 33.3 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni, 66.7 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 3894.9 total, 2352.8 free, 866.0 used, 676.0 buff/cache MiB Swap: 923.2 total, 923.2 free, 0.0 used. 2781.2 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1960 user 20 0 411896 50404 38024 S 33.3 1.3 0:02.06 gnome-+ 1423 user 20 0 16196 9704 7424 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.34 systemd 1424 user 20 0 102304 3620 24 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 (sd-pa+ 1430 user 9 -11 90940 5876 4776 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 pipewi+ 1431 user 9 -11 82964 5888 4872 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 pipewi+ 1432 user 9 -11 1491348 19356 14788 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.97 pulsea+ ##### snipped #####The top command provides real‑time monitoring of CPU and memory usage for processes owned by the specified user.
top accepts either -u or -U, but not both at the same time, and combining them results in a selection error.
$ top -u user -U user top: conflicting process selections (U/p/u)
- Display processes for a user using pgrep and include process names in the output.
$ pgrep -l -u user -U user 1423 systemd 1424 (sd-pam) 1430 pipewire 1431 pipewire-media- 1432 pulseaudio 1434 tracker-miner-f 1437 dbus-daemon 1439 gnome-keyring-d 1459 gvfsd 1464 gvfsd-fuse 1466 gvfs-udisks2-vo 1477 gvfs-goa-volume 1482 goa-daemon 1492 goa-identity-se 1499 gvfs-gphoto2-vo 1503 gvfs-mtp-volume 1509 gdm-wayland-ses 1511 gvfs-afc-volume 1517 gnome-session-b 1568 gnome-session-c 1576 gnome-session-b 1593 gnome-shell 1597 at-spi-bus-laun 1605 dbus-daemon 1613 Xwayland 1634 xdg-permission- 1636 gnome-shell-cal 1645 evolution-sourc 1652 evolution-calen 1660 dconf-service 1664 evolution-addre 1682 gjs 1684 at-spi2-registr 1694 gvfsd-trash 1699 gsd-a11y-settin 1700 gsd-color 1702 gsd-datetime 1703 gsd-housekeepin 1705 gsd-keyboard 1719 gsd-media-keys 1722 gsd-power 1723 gsd-print-notif 1724 gsd-rfkill 1728 gsd-screensaver 1735 gsd-sharing 1736 gsd-smartcard 1752 gsd-sound 1754 gsd-wacom 1761 gsd-disk-utilit 1774 evolution-alarm 1778 gsd-printer 1781 vmtoolsd 1861 ibus-daemon 1862 gsd-xsettings 1885 ibus-dconf 1887 ibus-extension- 1889 ibus-x11 1900 ibus-portal 1919 ibus-engine-sim 1929 gjs 1960 gnome-terminal- 1962 gnome-calendar 2184 bash 2213 gvfsd-metadata 2216 update-notifier
The pgrep command lists process IDs filtered by user or group, and the -l flag adds the associated process names to the output.
Mohd Shakir Zakaria is a cloud architect with deep roots in software development and open-source advocacy. Certified in AWS, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, and Linux, he specializes in designing and managing robust cloud and on-premises infrastructures.
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