linux command ps 4654

I'm not the OP, but on my MandrX LE2005 system, using procps-3.2.5-1mdk, I see the above commands not sorting corectly on %MEM or any other visible memory-related field that I can see.

Here's the first 1 line and last 20 lines of the output, width truncated:

USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND rob 12899 0.0 0.1 3008 1568 ? S 05:31 0:00bin-sh rob 30287 0.0 0.1 3032 1608 pts-0 S 16:01 0:00bin-sh rob 30301 0.0 0.1 3064 1624 pts-0 S 16:01 0:00bin-sh rob 13045 0.0 0.3 5672 3116 ? S 05:31 0:03 xterm -bg rob 2324 0.0 0.2 568 plus 12 2776 pts-0 S 20:57 0:00 slrnxterm rob 13067 0.0 0.1 3040 1588 pts-1 Ss+ 05:31 0:00 -sh rob 2477 0.0 0.0 2668 920 pts-0 R+ 21:06 0:00 ps aux -- rob 13052 0.0 0.2 5728 2940 ? S 05:31 0:00 xterm -bg rob 13053 0.0 0.1 3088 1648 pts-0 Ss 05:31 0:00 -sh rob 2323 0.0 0.1 3088 1652 pts-0 S 20:57 0:00 -sh root 5261 0.0 0.1 2304 1328 ? Ss Jul23 0:00 klogd -2 incomail 30682 0.0 0.3 5420 3280 ? Ss Jul30 0:35 fetchmail rob 2325 0.0 0.5 7128 5796 pts-2 Ss+ 20:57 0:00 slrn root 30151 0.0 0.5 8380 5264 ? Ss Aug13 1:02 cupsd xfs 5835 0.0 0.9 11020 9788 ? Ss Jul23 0:54 xfs -port rob 13050 0.0 0.1 13808 1748 ? S 05:31 0:00 xcpustate named 6121 0.0 0.3 30348 3404 ? Ssl Jul23 1:19 named -u root 12916 12.5 3.8 41648 39512 ? S 05:31 117:43etc-X11rob 30306 0.5 8.9 150912 93064 pts-0 Sl 16:01 1:35usr-loca rob 30268 0.2 4.9 221452 51016 pts-0 Sl 16:01 0:44 java -cla

Generally, %MEM, VSZ, and RSS are increasing. However, between processes 13045, 2324, and 13067, they decrease. There are other visible reversals.

Curious...

Maybe the "size" field that is sorted on is another field not visible with the specified options?

Robert Riches (Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)