top
top is a real time processes and threads monitor which lists basic information about currently active processes.
top may be seen as ps command which updates itself with a given rate. Execution of top applet may be
controlled with command-line arguments and further with interactive commands when being
When top is run with -h argument the help message is displayed as follows:
Command-line arguments
-h: prints help
-H: starts with threads mode
-d: sets refresh rate (integer greater than 0)
-n: sets number of iterations (by default its infinity)
Interactive commands:
<ENTER> or <SPACE>: refresh
H: toggle threads mode
q: quit
P: sort by CPU
M: sort by MEM
T: sort by TIME
N: sort by PID
R: reverse sorting
If sole:
top
Is run it presents the user with a live monitor of processes sorted by %CPU usage. The monitor is structured in columns with headers. Each row represents a process.
Column headers are:
- PID - process ID,
- PPID - parent process ID,
- PR - priority,
- STATE - state of process,
- %CPU - CPU usage of process,
- WAIT - wait for processor time,
- TIME - age of process,
- VMEM - memory used,
- CMD - command that started that process,