Linux PS Command: Get the Process Start Time and Date

The usual ps -ef or ps aux commands in Linux show the start time of the processes that have been started today.

For the older processes they show the start date or the start year only, but not the start time.

Don’t worry! The start time of the long-running processes in Linux is not lost and you can still get it with the ps command.

To get the full start time and date of the processes – it is just required to tell the ps command to display the lstart field.

Cool Tip: The ps command for PRO! Get the TOP-10 processes sorted by memory usage in Linux! Read more →

Get The Process Start Time And Date In Linux

Display the start time and date of the running processes in Linux:

$ ps -eo pid,lstart,cmd

Sample output:

  PID                  STARTED CMD
    1 Mon Jun 19 21:31:08 2017 /sbin/init
    2 Mon Jun 19 21:31:08 2017 [kthreadd]
    3 Mon Jun 19 21:31:08 2017 [ksoftirqd/0]