Interactive TUI for exploring and cleaning up processes - find orphans, memory hogs, and kill them.
Features
- Memory overview - Real-time total/used/free/swap display
- Multiple views - All, Orphaned, Killable, Process Groups, High Memory
- Orphan detection - Finds processes whose parent died (PPID=1)
- Killable detection - Orphans safe to kill (not tmux, not system services)
- Stale detection - Flags processes with deleted executables
- Tmux awareness - Won't flag tmux processes as orphan candidates
- Batch operations - Select multiple processes and kill them at once
- Process grouping - Find duplicate/similar processes consuming resources
- Custom columns - Select which columns to display in CLI output
- Configurable thresholds - Adjust memory filters via CLI flags
- Preview mode - Dry-run for kill operations with formatting options
- CLI mode - Scriptable commands with JSON/CSV/Markdown output
- Clickable TUI - Click headers to sort, rows to select
Installation
pip install procclean
Or with uv (recommended):
uv tool install procclean
Or with pipx:
pipx install procclean
Run without installing:
uvx procclean
# or
pipx run procclean
Usage
TUI Mode (default)
procclean
CLI Commands
# List processes
procclean list # List processes (table)
procclean ls # Alias for 'list'
procclean list -f json|csv|md # Different output formats
procclean list -s mem|cpu|pid|name|cwd # Sort by field
procclean list -a # Sort ascending (default: descending)
procclean list -o # Orphans only
procclean list -m # High memory only (>500MB)
procclean list -k # Killable orphans only
procclean list --cwd # Filter by current directory
procclean list --cwd /path/to/dir # Filter by specific cwd
procclean list -n 20 # Limit output to 20 processes
procclean list -c pid,name,rss_mb # Custom columns
procclean list --min-memory 10 # Only processes using >10 MB
procclean list --high-memory-threshold 1000 # High-mem at 1000 MB
# Process groups
procclean groups # Show process groups
procclean g # Alias for 'groups'
procclean groups -f json # Groups as JSON
# Kill processes
procclean kill <PID> [PID...] # Kill process(es)
procclean kill -f <PID> # Force kill (SIGKILL)
procclean kill --cwd /path -y # Kill all in cwd (skip confirm)
procclean kill -k -y # Kill all killable orphans
procclean kill -k --preview # Preview what would be killed
procclean kill -k --dry-run # Alias for --preview
procclean kill -k --preview -O json # Preview in JSON format
# Memory summary
procclean mem # Show memory summary
procclean memory # Full name for 'mem'
procclean mem -f json # Memory info as JSON
TUI Keybindings
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
q |
Quit |
r |
Refresh |
k |
Kill selected (SIGTERM) |
K |
Force kill (SIGKILL) |
o |
Show orphans |
O |
Show killable |
a |
Show all |
g |
Show groups |
w |
Filter by selected cwd |
W |
Clear cwd filter |
Space |
Toggle selection |
s |
Select all visible |
c |
Clear selection |
1 |
Sort by memory |
2 |
Sort by CPU |
3 |
Sort by PID |
4 |
Sort by name |
5 |
Sort by cwd |
! |
Reverse sort order |
Click column headers to sort, click rows to toggle selection.
Views
- All Processes - All user processes sorted by memory usage
- Orphaned - Processes with PPID=1 (parent died)
- Killable - Orphans safe to kill (not in tmux, not system services)
- Process Groups - Similar processes grouped together
- High Memory - Processes using >500MB RAM (configurable)
Output Formats
CLI supports multiple output formats via -f:
table- Human-readable table (default)json- JSON array for scriptingcsv- CSV for spreadsheetsmd- Markdown table
Custom Columns
Use -c to specify which columns to display:
procclean list -c pid,name,rss_mb,cwd
Available columns: pid, name, rss_mb, cpu_percent, cwd, ppid,
parent_name, status, cmdline, username
Requirements
- Python 3.14+
- Linux (uses
/procfilesystem)
Development
git clone https://github.com/kjanat/procclean
cd procclean
uv sync
uv run pre-commit install --install-hooks
Run tests:
uv run pytest # All tests
uv run pytest --cov -vv # With coverage
Lint and type check:
uv run ruff check src/
uv run ty check
License
Metadata
Release files for procclean 2.0.1
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| procclean-2.0.1.tar.gz | 22.8 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| procclean-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 52.7 kB
Release files / procclean-2.0.1.tar.gz
| Download URL | procclean-2.0.1.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 22.8 kB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
a8532ab7df9a844f70c07241d377d0927f284f7446545acc24b51956bb033c90
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
18c5571796818d8eedc42191d80a2ac35a8d0e6d5d6c3cd59026db28ec8fc312
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
uv/0.11.19 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.11.19","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Ubuntu","version":"24.04","id":"noble","libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":true}
|
Release files / procclean-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | procclean-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 29.9 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
15f0901fdceacd71ce5a46f321f1660ff106fffe4c587d9663a5e3f231afdba3
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
6373112eca959d9d816c271607e00023e3a9a25cf9c5da1a8228955ec6395c31
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
Yes |
| Uploaded via |
uv/0.11.19 {"installer":{"name":"uv","version":"0.11.19","subcommand":["publish"]},"python":null,"implementation":{"name":null,"version":null},"distro":{"name":"Ubuntu","version":"24.04","id":"noble","libc":null},"system":{"name":null,"release":null},"cpu":null,"openssl_version":null,"setuptools_version":null,"rustc_version":null,"ci":true}
|