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top (software)

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sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 9.6 us, 0.7 sy, 0.0 ni, 89.5 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.2 si, 0.0 st | | | | | | | '------. <user> <system> <nice> <idle> <IOWait> <hardware/software interrupt> <steal time> MiB Mem : 1031911.+total, 368915.2 free, 172285.0 used, 490711.5 buff/cache MiB Swap: 2048.0 total, 2048.0 free, 0.0 used. 807110.1 avail Mem
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The program produces an ordered list of running processes selected by user-specified criteria, and updates it periodically. Default ordering is by CPU usage, and only the top CPU consumers are shown. top shows how much processing power and memory are being used, as well as other information about the
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PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 20 0 2456 1612 1500 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.07 init(Ubuntu) 4 root 20 0 2456 4 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 init 656403 user2 20 0 80.0g 3.6g 370000 S 100.0 0.4
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top - 14:21:23 up 2 days, 21:40, 44 users, load average: 14.44, 14.13, 14.64 | | | | <time> <system uptime> <user count> <load average for the past 1, 5, 15 minutes> Tasks: 1552 total, 8 running, 1544
281:. If the system needs more memory resources and the RAM is full, inactive pages in memory are moved to the swap space. In this snapshot, there's a total of 2048 MiB of swap, all free, indicating that no swapping is occurring, which is good for performance. 236:
is the exponential moving average of the run-queue length over the past 1/5/15 minutes. The run-queue includes both processes being run and waiting to be run. At complete utilization with no task switching, the load average is equal to the number of CPUs.
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of the task, manually set by users and administrators to influence the real-time priority. A lower nice value tends to favor the process, and a higher nice value tends to disfavor the process. It ranges from -20 (most favored) to 19 (least
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The load average numbers in Linux refers to the sum of the number of processes waiting in the run-queue plus the number currently executing. The number is absolute, not relative. And thus it can be
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1594:38 python3 2024198 longnam+ 20 0 50.5g 4.7g 609200 S 1.6 0.5 204:46.85 long-name-proc 2056804 longnam+ 20 0 237.1g 31.1g 23.1g S 136.8 3.1 69:54.11 python3
287:: The amount of memory available for new applications, without swapping. This considers not just the unused RAM, but also the memory that can be reclaimed from RAM caches. 362:
size of the process. This includes all memory that the process can access, including memory that is swapped out, memory that is allocated but not used, and shared memory.
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There are several different versions of top. The traditional Unix version was written by William LeFebvre and originally copyrighted in 1984. It is hosted on
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running processes. Some versions of top allow extensive customization of the display, such as choice of columns or sorting method. top is useful for
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PR numbers are considered more important by the scheduler and more likely to be scheduled, which means it tends to have more CPU-time per real-time.
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group of tools. It was originally written by Roger Binns and released in early 1992 but shortly thereafter taken over by others.
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program is similar to top, but instead produces a snapshot of processes taken at the time of invocation. top's
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size: how much of the RAM claimed by the process is sharable with other processes.
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who started the process. If the username is too long, it is cut-off with a
102: 607: 468:: The total CPU time the task has used since it started. This is shown in 1373: 1347: 1284: 1274: 1264: 1229: 1219: 1214: 1097: 1087: 1041: 346: 147: 1189: 1148: 951: 921: 577: 548: 522: 372:, the portion of a process's memory that is held in RAM. Compared with 181: 34: 1478: 1432: 1412: 1309: 1289: 1244: 1092: 1016: 1001: 986: 971: 966: 961: 956: 456:: The percentage of the CPU time that the process is currently using. 207: 110: 77: 26: 376:, this excludes memory that is swapped out, not yet used, or shared. 1394: 1174: 819: 802: 785: 543: 441: 278: 256: 169: 1199: 1123: 798: 781: 652: 249:
counts the percentage of CPU usage, broken down into categories.
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has an updating running processes list as part of the topas and
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Task manager program found in many Unix-like operating systems
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The rest of the text provides a table with each row being a
1468: 1442: 1378: 1299: 1194: 1179: 1138: 1128: 1072: 900: 809: 538: 532: 511: 505: 1269: 1169: 1113: 1011: 462:: The percentage of the physical RAM used by the process. 991: 490:, if the command is too long, it is cut-off without a 476:
means that it is accurate to 0.01 second. If it shows
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Top on Linux with altered preferences for better view
703:"UNIX Load Average Part 2: Not Your Average Average" 311:, a unique number identifying each running process. 113:operating systems, that displays information about 1557:Unix process- and task-management-related software 1543: 335:of the task, computed by the system scheduler. 885: 222:The first 5 rows overview the entire system. 164:, the roughly equivalent program is prstat. 1524: 892: 878: 700: 426:(terminated but not reaped by its parent) 150:, and release 3.7 was announced in 2008. 853:"How to customize the Linux top command" 694: 597: 392:: Status of process. The status can be: 153:The Linux version of top is part of the 132: 1544: 732: 726: 873: 850: 243:counts the processes their statuses. 841:. A deep dive into the mechanics of 514:interactive system-monitor for Linux 827:"Decoded: The top utility (procps)" 678:"Linux Top Origins | Roger's world" 13: 199:formula which is calculated using 141: 14: 1583: 767: 675: 1523: 1502: 1501: 653:"top(1): tasks - Linux man page" 598:LeFebvre, William (2014-09-16). 535:system-monitor for AIX and Linux 480:then it is accurate to 1 second. 416:for disk sleep (uninterruptible) 25: 733:Walker, Ray (1 December 2006). 708:. teamquest.com. Archived from 277:: Swap space usage in units of 752: 669: 645: 621: 591: 562: 508:bandwidth monitoring for Linux 1: 555: 851:James, Hayden (2019-09-18). 7: 498: 255:: Memory usage in units of 120: 49:; 40 years ago 10: 1588: 217: 172:command and the graphical 101:(table of processes) is a 1497: 1451: 1403: 1387: 1366: 1323: 1162: 1106: 1055: 914: 701:J. Gunther, Neil (2010). 83: 71: 61: 43: 33: 24: 735:"Examining Load Average" 296: 224: 117:and memory utilization. 759:top(1) - Linux man page 109:program, found in many 1517:Unix SUS2008 utilities 1512:Standard Unix programs 904:command-line interface 263:is for memory used by 138: 1562:System administration 136: 128:system administrators 1552:Console applications 1405:Software development 657:Linux Documentation 472:. The plus sign in 21: 434:job control signal 139: 35:Original author(s) 19: 1539: 1538: 801:General Commands 784:General Commands 432:for stopped by a 370:Resident set size 197:exponential decay 166:Microsoft Windows 96: 95: 89:Process viewer / 1579: 1527: 1526: 1505: 1504: 1107:User environment 894: 887: 880: 871: 870: 866: 864: 863: 844: 840: 838: 837: 813: 812: 796: 795: 779: 778: 761: 756: 750: 749: 747: 745: 730: 724: 723: 721: 720: 714: 707: 698: 692: 691: 689: 688: 673: 667: 666: 664: 663: 649: 643: 642: 640: 639: 625: 619: 618: 616: 615: 606:. Archived from 595: 589: 588: 586: 585: 576:. 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Retrieved 856: 834:. Retrieved 830: 754: 742:. Retrieved 738: 728: 717:. Retrieved 710:the original 696: 685:. Retrieved 681: 671: 660:. Retrieved 656: 647: 636:. Retrieved 632: 629:"Top / News" 623: 612:. Retrieved 608:the original 603: 593: 582:. Retrieved 578:the original 573: 564: 404:for sleeping 347: 336: 331:: Real-time 289: 283: 273: 251: 245: 239: 233:load average 230: 221: 205: 186: 174:Task Manager 159: 152: 145: 124: 103:task manager 98: 97: 915:File system 633:SourceForge 600:"About Top" 494:at the end. 398:for running 325:at the end. 201:fixed point 148:SourceForge 1546:Categories 1507:Categories 862:2024-02-11 836:2024-02-11 719:2013-06-10 687:2016-05-22 662:2016-05-22 638:2016-05-22 614:2016-05-22 584:2016-05-22 556:References 549:sar (Unix) 523:LatencyTOP 309:Process ID 261:buff/cache 184:commands. 182:topas_nmon 62:Written in 1367:Searching 1056:Processes 352:favored). 285:avail Mem 189:unbounded 176:utility. 155:procps-ng 111:Unix-like 78:Unix-like 1175:basename 744:13 March 604:Unix Top 574:Unix Top 544:PowerTOP 499:See also 442:debugger 410:for idle 348:niceness 333:priority 279:mebibyte 275:MiB Swap 257:mebibyte 195:with an 170:tasklist 168:has the 121:Overview 1280:strings 1200:dirname 1124:logname 1073:crontab 799:OpenBSD 782:FreeBSD 484:COMMAND 446:tracing 444:during 292:process 265:buffers 253:MiB Mem 247:%Cpu(s) 218:Example 178:IBM AIX 162:Solaris 52: ( 1260:printf 1185:csplit 927:chattr 820:Manual 810:top(1) 803:Manual 793:top(1) 786:Manual 776:top(1) 528:mpstat 424:zombie 345:: The 317:: The 259:. The 203:math. 193:damped 1484:sleep 1438:strip 1418:ctags 1353:unset 1333:alias 1315:xargs 1295:troff 1255:patch 1250:paste 1225:iconv 1154:write 1144:uname 1047:umask 1037:touch 1027:split 1022:rmdir 997:mkdir 982:fuser 947:cksum 942:chgrp 937:chown 932:chmod 818:User 816:Linux 713:(PDF) 706:(PDF) 518:iftop 474:TIME+ 466:TIME+ 337:Lower 269:cache 241:Tasks 1530:List 1469:expr 1443:yacc 1428:make 1379:grep 1374:find 1358:wait 1348:test 1343:echo 1300:uniq 1285:tail 1275:sort 1265:read 1240:more 1230:join 1220:head 1215:fold 1195:diff 1180:comm 1139:tput 1134:talk 1129:mesg 1119:exit 1098:time 1088:nice 1083:kill 1042:type 977:file 901:Unix 746:2012 539:ntop 533:nmon 512:htop 506:Bmon 488:USER 478:TIME 460:%MEM 454:%CPU 422:for 374:VIRT 356:VIRT 319:user 315:USER 267:and 206:The 85:Type 54:1984 47:1984 1464:cal 1423:lex 1395:man 1270:sed 1190:cut 1170:awk 1149:who 1114:env 1032:tee 1012:pwd 1007:pax 952:cmp 922:cat 843:top 436:or 380:SHR 366:RES 305:PID 160:On 115:CPU 105:or 99:top 20:top 1548:: 1479:od 1474:lp 1459:bc 1433:nm 1413:ar 1338:cd 1310:wc 1305:vi 1290:tr 1245:nl 1235:m4 1210:ex 1205:ed 1093:ps 1078:fg 1068:bg 1063:at 1017:rm 1002:mv 992:ls 987:ln 972:df 967:du 962:dd 957:cp 855:. 829:. 737:. 680:. 655:. 631:. 602:. 572:. 382:: 368:: 358:: 343:NI 329:PR 307:: 271:. 208:ps 893:e 886:t 879:v 865:. 845:. 839:. 748:. 722:. 690:. 665:. 641:. 617:. 587:. 492:+ 448:. 438:t 430:T 420:Z 414:D 408:I 402:S 396:R 390:S 323:+ 212:n 66:C 56:)

Index


Original author(s)
C
Operating system
Unix-like
Type
System monitor
task manager
system monitor
Unix-like
CPU
system administrators

SourceForge
procps-ng
Solaris
Microsoft Windows
tasklist
Task Manager
IBM AIX
topas_nmon
unbounded
damped
exponential decay
fixed point
ps
load average
mebibyte
buffers
cache

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