top

Watch the system load and processes live

What it does

top shows processes and refreshes the list every few seconds. At the top is a summary: uptime, load average, memory and swap. By default the processes are sorted by CPU use.

Shift+M sorts by memory, Shift+P back by CPU, k offers to end a process by PID, and q quits. Many people install htop: the same thing, in color and easier to use; you may need to install it first.

Syntax

top
htop

Examples

• Watch live which processes load the CPU and memory

  top

  • top — process monitor; quit with q

Related commands

• ps — List processes
• free — See how much memory is used and free
• kill — End a process by its ID

Practise · All commands