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Pretty sure the section in the `ps` man page called OBSOLETE SORT KEYS indicates that even the `ps` on very old redhat machines could do this out of box... see

Pretty sure the section in the `ps` man page called OBSOLETE SORT KEYS indicates that even the `ps` on very old redhat machines could do this out of box... see the field `start_time`. Failing that, consider the `etimes` field (seconds since process was started) used in conjunction with the -o feature (control output format) so you can put `etimes` up front then simple pipe the output to `sort`. Those things being said, the situation you describe is indeed hairy. `ps` output was designed for human consumption, that's why the process age field format varies (1w vs 10:15) and that's presumably why you wanted to bring python into the mix! ...You might have had an easier time looking in /proc... Indeed, this looks promising: cat /proc/[0-9]*/stat|sort -n|less -S EDIT: hm, I don't know how old /proc is! EDIT #2: But try doing ANY of this on an ancient Windows machine! The "peer" of your old Redhat machine would be what, a Win2k3 machine, or a Win2k? How old is PowerShell? :)

Klathmon 10y ago
Honestly it was a quick and dirty one-time project, and I just needed to cobble something together. I was more just commenting on the fact that with a "strongly-typed" shell some of this stuff becomes much easier without every single tool needing to add all these options. It gets much more "Unix Philosophy" when every command doesn't need it's own sorting logic, and doesn't need it's own date display logic, and doesn't need it's own way of displaying it to the user. It can output an object, which can be piped into another program to use what it needs which can be piped to something else to do some sorting which can pipe it out to another to display it in a nice table.
- daveloyall 10y ago
  I hear you. I myself was impressed by some things PowerShell can do easily. But let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater... The unix shell ecosystem is powerful magic. There are LOTS of things that can be done there with great ease. Not to mention--and I understand full well that this stance is falling out of fashion--MICROSOFT ... KILLED... my PAPPY! :|
jve 10y ago
PowerShell was released after Win2k3, however you could install it on Win2k3/XP, even PowerShell 2 afterwards: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968929 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968929

Klathmon 10y ago

Honestly it was a quick and dirty one-time project, and I just needed to cobble something together. I was more just commenting on the fact that with a "strongly-typed" shell some of this stuff becomes much easier without every single tool needing to add all these options. It gets much more "Unix Philosophy" when every command doesn't need it's own sorting logic, and doesn't need it's own date display logic, and doesn't need it's own way of displaying it to the user. It can output an object, which can be piped into another program to use what it needs which can be piped to something else to do some sorting which can pipe it out to another to display it in a nice table.

daveloyall 10y ago
I hear you. I myself was impressed by some things PowerShell can do easily. But let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater... The unix shell ecosystem is powerful magic. There are LOTS of things that can be done there with great ease. Not to mention--and I understand full well that this stance is falling out of fashion--MICROSOFT ... KILLED... my PAPPY! :|

jve 10y ago

PowerShell was released after Win2k3, however you could install it on Win2k3/XP, even PowerShell 2 afterwards: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968929 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968929