psn

psn is a Rust terminal UI for viewing process status and sending signals.

• Browse running processes in a terminal UI
• Filter processes by text match <FILTER> or regular expression -r <PATTERN>
• Filter interactively while browsing with /
• Show only the current user's processes with -u
• Send Unix signals 1 through 9 to the selected process

Read more: Dev.to: psn - a minimalist process navigator for Linux

Dependencies

• GNU/Linux (process data is read from /proc via sysinfo — no external binaries required)
• Rust stable toolchain (Rust 2024 edition, Cargo) for building from source

Core crates: ratatui, crossterm, sysinfo, nix, anyhow, users.

Installation

Helpers exist for Arch and Gentoo-based systems but you can install also via crates.io or from source directly.

Archlinux

See PKGBUILD

Gentoo

See psn-9999.ebuild

Cargo Crates

cargo install psn

From Source

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/l5yth/psn.git
cd psn
cargo build --release

Run the built binary:

./target/release/psn

Or run directly in development:

cargo run --release --

Usage

psn v0.1.2
process status navigator
apache v2 (c) 2026 l5yth

usage: psn <FILTER>
usage: psn [OPTIONS] -f <FILTER>
usage: psn [OPTIONS] -r <PATTERN>

Terminal UI for browsing process status and sending Unix signals.

Options:
  -h, --help            Show usage instructions
  -v, --version         Show version
  -f, --filter <value>  Filter process names/commands (case insensitive string)
  -r, --regex <value>   Use regex matching (regular expression pattern)
  -u, --user            Show only current user's processes

Examples:

# substring filter (positional)
psn "sshd"

# substring filter via option
psn -f "systemd"
psn --filter "python"

# regex filter
psn -r 'ssh(d|agent)'
psn --regex '(nginx|apache2)'

# current user only
psn -u
psn -u -f "cargo"
psn -u -r '^bash$'

In-app keys:

• q: quit
• r: refresh process list
• ↑ / ↓: move selection
• PgUp / PgDn: page up/down
• ← / →: collapse / expand tree node
• /: open interactive filter prompt (live, substring match); Enter confirms, Esc cancels
• 1..9: send corresponding signal to selected process (prompts for confirmation); not available while the filter prompt is open — press Enter or Esc first

Development

cargo check
cargo test --all --all-features --verbose
cargo fmt --all
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings