How to Use the Linux Top command

The top command allows users to monitor processes and system resource usage on Linux.
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You can press the following keys to sort the list:

1. 'M' to sort by memory usage.
2. 'P' to sort by CPU usage.
3. 'N' to sort by process ID.
4. 'T' to sort by the running time.

1. How do I run a top command in Linux?
2. What does top command do in Linux?
3. How do you execute a top command?
4. How do you read top command output?
5. How do you kill a command in Linux?
6. How do I find the top 5 processes in Linux?
7. How do I find the top 10 processes in Linux?
8. What is %CPU in top command?
9. What is ps and top command?
10. What is PS EF command in Linux?
11. How do you sort memory by top command?
12. What does red and green mean in Htop?

How do I run a top command in Linux?

Kill a Running Process with Top Command

Hit the k key while the top command is running. A prompt will ask you about the PID you want to kill. Enter the required process ID by viewing it from the list and then hit enter. The process and the corresponding application will close almost immediately.

What does top command do in Linux?

top command displays processor activity of your Linux box and also displays tasks managed by kernel in real-time. It'll show processor and memory are being used and other information like running processes. This may help you to take correct action. top command found in UNIX-like operating systems.

How do you execute a top command?

Once your server is connected with SSH, you can run htop command by just typing htop and press Enter. A screen will open up as a result of this command and will look like the below screenshot. The whole window above can be split up into three sections for the ease of our understanding.

How do you read top command output?

SHR – shared memory of the process (3204) S – indicates the status of the process: S=sleep R=running Z=zombie (S) %CPU – This is the percentage of CPU used by this process (0.3) %MEM – This is the percentage of RAM used by the process (0.7)

How do you kill a command in Linux?

The syntax of the kill command takes the following form: kill [OPTIONS] [PID]... The kill command sends a signal to specified processes or process groups, causing them to act according to the signal.
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kill Command

1. 1 ( HUP ) - Reload a process.
2. 9 ( KILL ) - Kill a process.
3. 15 ( TERM ) - Gracefully stop a process.

How do I find the top 5 processes in Linux?

2) How to Find High CPU Consumption Process in Linux Using the ps Command

1. ps : This is a command.
2. -e : Select all processes.
3. -o : To customize a output format.
4. –sort=-%cpu : Sort the ouput based on CPU usage.
5. head : To display first 10 lines of the output.
6. PID : Unique ID of the process.

How do I find the top 10 processes in Linux?

How To Check Top 10 CPU Consuming Process In Linux Ubuntu

1. -A Select all processes. Identical to -e.
2. -e Select all processes. Identical to -A.
3. -o User-defined format. Option of ps allows to specify the output format. ...
4. –pid pidlist process ID. ...
5. –ppid pidlist parent process ID. ...
6. –sort Specify sorting order.
7. cmd simple name of executable.
8. %cpu CPU utilization of the process in “##.

What is %CPU in top command?

%CPU -- CPU Usage : The percentage of your CPU that is being used by the process. By default, top displays this as a percentage of a single CPU. On multi-core systems, you can have percentages that are greater than 100%. For example, if 3 cores are at 60% use, top will show a CPU use of 180%.

What is ps and top command?

ps enables you to see all your processes, or just the processes used by certain users, for example root or yourself. top should be used to see which processes are most active, ps could be used to see which processes you (or any other user) are running currently.

What is PS EF command in Linux?

This command is used to find the PID (Process ID, Unique number of the process) of the process. Each process will have the unique number which is called as PID of the process.

How do you sort memory by top command?

9 Answers

1. press shift + m after running the top command.
2. or you can interactively choose which column to sort on. press Shift + f to enter the interactive menu. press the up or down arrow until the %MEM choice is highlighted. press s to select %MEM choice. press enter to save your selection.

What does red and green mean in Htop?

Each of the `|` marks are color coded to provide a different meaning. ... For CPU usage the color key is: Blue: low priority processes (nice > 0) Green: normal (user) processes. Red: kernel processes.