The process state code indicates the state for a process.
| Short Code | Meaning | Description |
|---|---|---|
| D | Uninterruptible sleep | Usually refers to IO processes. |
| l | Is multi-threaded (using CLONE_THREAD, like NPTL pthreads do) | |
| L | Has pages locked into memory (for real-time and custom IO) | |
| N | Low-priority (nice to other users) | |
| R | Running runnable (on run queue) | |
| s | Is a session leader | |
| S | Interruptible sleep | Waiting for an event to complete. |
| T | Stopped | May have been stopped by control signal or trace. |
| W | Paging | Storing or retrieving data. |
| Z | Defunct (“zombie”) process | Terminated but not collected by its parent process. |
| < | High-priority | |
| + | Belongs to foreground process group. |