OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Utilities => Topic started by: mauro on January 16, 2019, 08:49:59 pm

Title: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 16, 2019, 08:49:59 pm
I'm looking for a process killer program for OS2 Warp 4.52 (guest in Virtualbox), simple to run, intuitive (GUI welcome), free.
Know a good one is CAD, but it's payware.
Could you recommend another?
Thank you
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Roderick Klein on January 16, 2019, 09:03:28 pm
I think you are best off grabbing CAD handler from Veit Kannegieser. In my experience most process killers on OS/2 under the bonnet do not work all the different. They all use the same technology.

If you do use a process grab something that runs in full screen text mode. Any process killers running in PM graphics mode are more or less useless in my opinion. Because if you need a process killer in a lot of cases the PM shell gets "blocked".

CAD handler from Veit Kannegieser comes with an advanced kill, you need to install XF96sup.sys for this.

Roderick Klein
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Martin Iturbide on January 16, 2019, 09:50:30 pm
Hi

Just in case here are Veit Kannegieser's files:
http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/ (http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/)

Regards
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: David Graser on January 17, 2019, 02:12:48 am
Paul Ratcliffe'a Top ver 2.14 is very good also.

OS/2 VIO application to monitor CPU usage by process. It does NOT impose an artificial load on the system to generate usage statistics. The process list can be sorted according to various criteria (including CPU percentage, name, threads), and any process from the list can be selected to be killed.

http://home.clara.net/orac/files/os2/top214.zip
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 17, 2019, 06:58:59 am
Hi

Just in case here are Veit Kannegieser's files:
http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/ (http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/)

Regards

cadh?
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 17, 2019, 11:17:29 am
Paul Ratcliffe'a Top ver 2.14 is very good also.

OS/2 VIO application to monitor CPU usage by process. It does NOT impose an artificial load on the system to generate usage statistics. The process list can be sorted according to various criteria (including CPU percentage, name, threads), and any process from the list can be selected to be killed.

http://home.clara.net/orac/files/os2/top214.zip

much interesting this one as well,   I saw the zip consisting in some executable files, how should they be installed-used ? Sometimes it is a matter of copying the files in the respective folders, I do not think this could be applied tn this case. It is not described in the readme.
Thanks
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: xynixme on January 17, 2019, 03:04:51 pm
I saw the zip consisting in some executable files, how should they be installed-used ? Sometimes it is a matter of copying the files in the respective folders
TOP is one of the secret, silent OS upgrades, and there is an informal upgrade package for eCS 1.x at Hobbes. Installing TOP is simple, FWIW. Thh upgrade package just uses the same directory structures, so we are all talking about the same TOP.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-viewer.php?dir=/pub/os2/util/process&file=top214-ecs12.zip&backto=%2Fh-search.php%3Fsh%3D1%26button%3DSearch%26key%3Dtop21%26stype%3Dall%26sort%3Dtype_name%26dir%3D%252F
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Sean Casey on January 17, 2019, 07:15:23 pm
Just in case here are Veit Kannegieser's files:
http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/ (http://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/)

CAD-H binaries can be downloaded from Hobbes here: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=cadh&pushbutton=Search
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Fahrvenugen on January 17, 2019, 10:03:47 pm
I know it is quite old by the standards of others that have come out since, but I still like WatchCat

Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 18, 2019, 03:47:39 am
PKill.exe is included with ArcaOS. It is a command line tool, that seems to do the job well.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Sean Casey on January 18, 2019, 04:09:18 am
PKill.exe is included with ArcaOS. It is a command line tool, that seems to do the job well.

Thank you, I have also been looking for something to kill processes.  For fun, I just tried a "ps -ax" at an OS/2 command prompt, but no surprise, unknown command.  I see ArcaOS provides top, so I can find PIDs there.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Dave Yeo on January 18, 2019, 04:29:52 am
I know it is quite old by the standards of others that have come out since, but I still like WatchCat

Watchcat doesn't work so well with USB keyboards.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 18, 2019, 06:58:53 am
Installing TOP is simple, FWIW. Thh upgrade package just uses the same directory structures, so we are all talking about the same TOP.


yes I trust you, but I cannot decode this answer, still need to understand how to install and make it work. There are some different excecutable in the zip files: then what next?
Thank you
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 18, 2019, 07:15:48 am
Quote
I see ArcaOS provides top, so I can find PIDs there.

If you use TOP, you might as well kill processes with that. PKILL does not need a PID, it will kill by name. For instance, if you need to kill the CUPS darmon (CUPSD), just do PKILL CUPSD, and it will do it. Be aware, that CUPSD has backup capability, so you need to kill it multiple times (4, I think) to convince it to go away Most programs don't do things like that.

Quote
yes I trust you, but I cannot decode this answer, still need to understand how to install and make it work.

If you are using eCS, or ArcaOS, CADH (Ctrl-Alt-Del Handler) is installed by default. TOP is also included in the CADH menu. Just do Ctrl-Alt-Del, and it should open the menu (as long as the system is responding). The rest is pretty obvious, and TOP is one of the options.

If you have an earlier version of OS/2, you would need to install the programs. I haven't seen that part for many years, I would assume that there are instructions included.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 18, 2019, 07:30:35 am
I should also mention the LSwitcher widget, for XCenter/eCenter. It is a replacement for the Window List widget, and it has some useful features, like Ctrl LMB on the LSwitcher desktop icon, and it will list processes. Click on a process, and it will offer to kill it. Click outside of the window, and it just closes the window. Shift LMB will list running programs. LSwitcher also has a program that does the same things. You can choose one, or the other, in the LSwitcher installer (Don't try both at the same time).

LSwitcher is at: https://trac.netlabs.org/lswitcher (https://trac.netlabs.org/lswitcher)
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 18, 2019, 10:13:10 am

If you are using eCS, or ArcaOS, CADH (Ctrl-Alt-Del Handler) is installed by default. TOP is also included in the CADH menu. Just do Ctrl-Alt-Del, and it should open the menu (as long as the system is responding). The rest is pretty obvious, and TOP is one of the options.

If you have an earlier version of OS/2, you would need to install the programs. I haven't seen that part for many years, I would assume that there are instructions included.

ok fine, having OS2 Warp 4.52, by installing CADH (it's a wpi package) it will take what needed, TOP included.
Thank you
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 19, 2019, 02:08:30 pm
that's it, now I have CADH + TOP (and XF86sup.sys) installed and working thanks to your help.
When I call the OS2 system shut down, a message warns that cadh popup is still active,  if I really want to terminate it must select OK.
As selected OK the system goes on shutting down .
Is this working as it is supposed to do?
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Doug Bissett on January 19, 2019, 07:06:23 pm
When I call the OS2 system shut down, a message warns that cadh popup is still active,  if I really want to terminate it must select OK.
As selected OK the system goes on shutting down .
Is this working as it is supposed to do?

If you are using XWorkPlace, there are shutdown options for things like that. I don't remember how you do it when you don't use XWorkPlace.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 19, 2019, 07:48:11 pm
When I call the OS2 system shut down, a message warns that cadh popup is still active,  if I really want to terminate it must select OK.
As selected OK the system goes on shutting down .
Is this working as it is supposed to do?

If you are using XWorkPlace, there are shutdown options for things like that. I don't remember how you do it when you don't use XWorkPlace.

other musthave stuff for me, thanks   :D
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: xynixme on January 20, 2019, 02:34:08 am
If you are using eCS, or ArcaOS, CADH (Ctrl-Alt-Del Handler) is installed by default. TOP is also included in the CADH menu.
FWIW: the silently added component TOP is only included with some versions of eCS. Probably the v2.x DE/EN ones.

Its author has released at least one CADH-related update in 2018, i.e. since the last version of eCS: "Added ability to use CADH.SYS for force kill option.". Dunno if some CADH WPI package was updated too.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on January 20, 2019, 03:19:46 am
update in 2018 [...] "Added ability to use CADH.SYS for force kill option."
No, that feature is included since many years. I guess more than 10 years. (Note that e.g version 2.0 is from 2010.)
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Dave Yeo on January 20, 2019, 04:41:34 am
What was added last year, was the ability to use cadh.sys instead of xf86sup.sys for the forced kill feature.
From top.txt (ver 2.14)
Quote
Version 2.14  06-01-18
  Added ability to use CADH.SYS for force kill option.

Version 2.13  25-10-14
  Added usage information for force kill option to PKILL.

Version 2.12  20-10-14
  Added force kill options.
...
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: mauro on January 20, 2019, 02:17:21 pm
If you are using eCS, or ArcaOS, CADH (Ctrl-Alt-Del Handler) is installed by default. TOP is also included in the CADH menu.
FWIW: the silently added component TOP is only included with some versions of eCS. Probably the v2.x DE/EN ones.

Its author has released at least one CADH-related update in 2018, i.e. since the last version of eCS: "Added ability to use CADH.SYS for force kill option.". Dunno if some CADH WPI package was updated too.

the suggested downloaded version of CADH has TOP handling item in the main menu but TOP is not included in CADH installation, must be installed apart, which only consists in copyig his files in the OS2 directory
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: Valery Sedletski on July 05, 2019, 12:48:39 pm
2Dave Yeo: WatchCat works fine with both PS/2 and USB keyboards with a wccall.exe utility from ErOS2. If someone interested, I can share it.
Title: Re: best process killer application
Post by: xynixme on July 05, 2019, 01:44:22 pm
which only consists in copyig his files in the OS2 directory
Well... If you upgrade the OS later, then there may be one copy in your OS2 directory, a different copy in my eCS directory structure, yet another different copy installed by an user in a PATH directory, and yet another installed copy in an ArcAOS directory structure.

That's why an author of an "OS component" could consider releasing that OS component as an upgrade for all brands, unless the component is too new. Then it doesn't really matter if you are using a German eCS 2.x, an Italian eCS 1.x or an informal Korean OS/2 Warp FP, and you don't have to browse through your Spanish Warp 3 system directories to avoid the loss of a great tool after an upgrade to ArcaOS 5.1.4 ES.

AFAICT eCS (2.x only) saves TOP files in 2 directories, so when nothing but OS2 would be used then you've also moved the docs to that different directory. "OS components" could have a special status, and it makes using such an utility more common.  OO.EXE is more stable than a matching Rexx script, but you may have to explain where to find it and how to install it.

Anyway, you can save TOP in the OS2 directory, but you may end up with sevelar installed versions of TOP, and you may not be able to find a manual someone refers to in a eCS subdirectory, which you may not have. Save it where an OS upgrade would save it. That may be OS2 directories, plural. Or ECS directories. Or ...