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Can You Top This? 15 Practical Linux Top Command Examples

UNIX / Linux Top Command ExamplesThis article is part of the on-going 15 example series where 15 examples will be provided for a specific command or functionality. In this series, earlier we discussed about find command, crontab examples, grep command, history command, ping command, and wget examples.

In this article, let us review 15 examples for Linux top command that will be helpful for both newbies and experts.

1. Show Processes Sorted by any Top Output Column – Press O

By default top command displays the processes in the order of CPU usage.  When the top command is running, press M (upper-case) to display processes sorted by memory usage as shown below.
Top Command Sort By Memory Usage

Fig: Press M to sort by memory usage – Unix top command

To sort top output by any column, Press O (upper-case O) , which will display all the possible columns that you can sort by as shown below.

Current Sort Field:  P  for window 1:Def
Select sort field via field letter, type any other key to return 

  a: PID        = Process Id              v: nDRT       = Dirty Pages count
  d: UID        = User Id                 y: WCHAN      = Sleeping in Function
  e: USER       = User Name               z: Flags      = Task Flags
  ........

When the linux top command is running, Press R, which does the sort in reverse order.

2. Kill a Task Without Exiting From Top – Press k

Once you’ve located a process that needs to be killed, press ‘k’ which will ask for the process id, and signal to send.  If you have the privilege to kill that particular PID, it will get killed successfully.

PID to kill: 1309
Kill PID 1309 with signal [15]: 
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent
 5136 root    16   0 38040  14m 9836 S    0  0.2   0:00.39 nautilus

3. Renice a Unix Process Without Exiting From Top – Press r

Press r, if you want to just change the priority of the process (and not kill the process). This will ask PID for renice, enter the PID and priority.


PID to renice: 1309
Renice PID 1309 to value: 
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent

4. Display Selected User in Top Output Using top -u

Use top -u to display a specific user processes only in the top command output.

$ top -u geek

While unix top command is running, press u which will ask for username as shown below.

Which user (blank for all): geek
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent

Display Only Specific Process with Given PIDs Using top -p

Use top -p as shown below to display specific PIDs.

$ top -p 1309, 1882
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent

5. Display All CPUs / Cores in the Top Output – Press 1 (one)

Top output by default shows CPU line for all the CPUs combined together as shown below.

top - 20:10:39 up 40 days, 23:02,  1 user,  load average: 4.97, 2.01, 1.25
Tasks: 310 total,   1 running, 309 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.5%us,  0.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 92.3%id,  6.4%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st

Press 1 (one), when the top command is running, which will break the CPU down and show details for all the individual CPUs running on the system as shown below.

top - 20:10:07 up 40 days, 23:03,  1 user,  load average: 5.32, 2.38, 1.39
Tasks: 341 total,   3 running, 337 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu0  :  7.7%us,  1.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 79.5%id, 11.1%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu1  :  0.3%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 94.9%id,  4.7%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu2 :  3.3%us,  0.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 55.7%id, 40.3%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu3 :  5.0%us,  1.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.2%id,  7.4%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Cpu4  : 38.5%us,  5.4%sy,  0.3%ni,  0.0%id, 54.8%wa,  0.0%hi,  1.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu5  :  0.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,100.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu6  :  0.3%us,  0.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 97.3%id,  1.7%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu7  :  5.4%us,  4.4%sy,  0.0%ni, 82.6%id,  7.7%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu8 :  1.7%us,  1.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 72.8%id, 23.8%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st

6. Refresh Unix Top Command Output On demand (or) Change Refresh Interval

By default, linux top command updates the output every 3.0 seconds. When you want to update the output on-demand, press space bar.

To change the output update frequency, press d in interactive mode, and enter the time in seconds as shown below.

Change delay from 3.0 to: 10
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent

7. Highlight Running Processes in the Linux Top Command Output – Press z or b

Press z or b, which will highlight all running process as shown below.
Highlight Running Process on Ubuntu Linux Using Top Command

Fig: Ubuntu Linux – top command highlights running process

8. Display Absolute Path of the Command and its Arguments – Press c

Press c which will show / hide command absolute path, and arguments as shown below.

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 /usr/sbin/gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 /usr/sbin/gagent -l 0 -u pre

9. Quit Top Command After a Specified Number of Iterations Using top -n

Until you press q, top continuously displays the output. If you would like to view only a certain iteration and want the top to exit automatically use -n option as shown below.

The following example will show 2 iterations of unix top command output and exit automatically

$ top -n 2

10. Executing Unix Top Command in Batch Mode

If you want to execute top command in the batch mode use option -b as shown below.

$ top -b -n 1

Note: This option is very helpful when you want to capture the unix top command output to a readable text file as we discussed earlier.

11. Split Top Output into Multiple Panels – Press A

To display multiple views of top command output on the terminal, press A. You can cycle through these windows using ‘a’. This is very helpful, when you can sort the output on multiple windows using different top output columns.

12. Get Top Command Help from Command Line and Interactively

Get a quick command line option help using top -h as shown below.

$ top -h
        top: procps version 3.2.0
usage:  top -hv | -bcisS -d delay -n iterations [-u user | -U user] -p pid [,pid ...]

Press h while top command is running, which will display help for interactive top commands.

Help for Interactive Commands - procps version 3.2.0
Window 1:Def: Cumulative mode Off.  System: Delay 3.0 secs; Secure mode Off.

  Z,B       Global: 'Z' change color mappings; 'B' disable/enable bold
  l,t,m     Toggle Summaries: 'l' load avg; 't' task/cpu stats; 'm' mem info
  1,I       Toggle SMP view: '1' single/separate states; 'I' Irix/Solaris mode
  ..........

13. Decrease Number of Processes Displayed in Top Output – Press n

Press n in the Interactive mode, which prompts for a number and shows only that. Following example will display only 2 process as a time.

Maximum tasks = 0, change to (0 is unlimited): 2
  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1309 geek   23   0 2483m 1.7g  27m S    0 21.8  45:31.32 gagent
 1882 geek   25   0 2485m 1.7g  26m S    0 21.7  22:38.97 gagent

14. Toggle Top Header to Increase Number of Processes Displayed

By default top displays total number process based on the window height. If you like to see additional process you might want to eliminate some of the top header information.

Following is the default header information provided by top.

top - 23:47:32 up 179 days,  3:36,  1 user,  load average: 0.01, 0.03, 0.00
Tasks:  67 total,   1 running,  66 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):   0.7% user,   1.2% system,   0.0% nice,  98.0% idle
Mem:   1017136k total,   954652k used,    62484k free,   138280k buffers
Swap:  3068404k total,    22352k used,  3046052k free,   586576k cached
  • Press l – to hide / show the load average. 1st header line.
  • Press t – to hide / show the CPU states. 2nd and 3rd header line.
  • Press m – to hide / show the memory information. 4th and 5th line.

15. Save Top Configuration Settings – Press W

If you’ve made any interactive top command configurations suggested in the above examples, you might want to save those for all future top command output. Once you’ve saved the top configuration, next time when you invoke the top command all your saved top configuration options will be used automatically.

To save the top configuration, press W, which will write the configuration files to ~/.toprc. This will display the write confirmation message as shown below.

top - 23:47:32 up 179 days,  3:36,  1 user,  load average: 0.01, 0.03, 0.00
Tasks:  67 total,   1 running,  66 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):   0.7% user,   1.2% system,   0.0% nice,  98.0% idle
Mem:   1017136k total,   954652k used,    62484k free,   138280k buffers
Swap:  3068404k total,    22352k used,  3046052k free,   586576k cached
Wrote configuration to '/home/ramesh/.toprc'
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Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Moi January 4, 2010, 2:51 am

    “htop” is somehow more intuitive and as powerful as top; try that one

  • fasil January 4, 2010, 3:37 am

    very nice post….keep up the good work….cheers

  • counterdutch January 4, 2010, 9:06 am

    only active processes top -i

  • Amit Agarwal January 4, 2010, 9:57 am

    use “.toprc” file to suit your needs permanently

  • Victor Bishop January 4, 2010, 11:08 am

    Good Work! Very useful for people like me who have trouble memorizing so many commands. Keep it up.
    Cheers,
    — VB

  • Eric Pulvino January 4, 2010, 6:53 pm

    I’d have to agree that “Htop” is definitely the better option when it comes to system monitoring. Htop’s options to kill processes are much more thorough… if you don’t want to kill a process you can even send it a more particular signal. Plus IMHO the default coloring and hotkeys are more intuitive.

  • alessandro January 10, 2010, 3:48 am

    Even better, use htop instead of top. Cheers!

  • Ben January 10, 2010, 1:14 pm

    Great article… keep up the good work!

    Yes, htop is better, but the author of this article still did some fabulous work here (and it isn’t the default).

  • Anders January 11, 2010, 9:25 am

    When sorting in top, the -keys can be used to switch between the columns and R will invert the sorting (ie. sort processes by least memory/cpu/priority/whatever). This, in my opnion, makes it a lot easier to switch around between different sortings

  • stampeder January 11, 2010, 11:51 am

    Another vote for htop as a top replacement

  • OjM January 11, 2010, 3:36 pm

    Thank you, this helped me so much, I might not need htop anymore. 🙂

  • Paul Horowitz January 12, 2010, 12:42 pm

    Very cool! Tons of stuff I didn’t know here. For whatever reason, I can’t get the ‘k’ to kill command to work within the Mac OS X command line. I’ve tried a gazillion alternates, it looks like the functionality is just not there or perhaps it’s a different key to press all together.

  • Noah January 12, 2010, 1:34 pm

    pressing ? in top will give a nice menu summarizing the above

  • Paolo January 14, 2010, 4:04 am

    Good Stuff! I love htop too but it doesn’t work in Mac OS X, so this article is even more useful to mac users! Thanks!

  • balaG January 21, 2010, 5:46 am

    this is very good for e learner

  • Anders January 21, 2010, 9:04 am

    OS X has a slightly different version of top. The same effect can be achieved by pressing ‘S’ (Signal), choosing which signal to send (TERM by default), and then typing in the pid just like the top most Linux distributions ship with.

  • Paolo January 21, 2010, 9:11 am

    Correction! It seems there is a version of htop available for mac as well! Grab it from
    http://www.mac-fun.com/site/2009/07/htop-mac-installer/

  • Predalien March 23, 2010, 1:27 am

    Top is good but htop is super hot wow
    looks like top in 3000 AD

  • Ian April 17, 2010, 12:05 pm

    Great job–this has been extremely helpful for me. I’m going to have a job interview and I’m going to get drilled on these.

  • Dinil A Mohanan June 11, 2010, 1:45 am

    “top -b1 -n1” will give the top output in long format (showing all the processes running on the OS). It is very easy to idetify the memory/CPU usage by all process.

  • Pani A Maruthi June 18, 2010, 11:57 pm

    gr8 article…it really helped me to understand the various options…thankyou so much 🙂

  • Bala January 2, 2011, 3:05 am

    Hi,

    In the above command output can any one tell me what format the time is in “Time+” is it hh:mm.(ss/100) or is it mm:ss.ss?

  • Dave February 17, 2011, 3:55 pm

    Learnt a lot of new stuff here – cheers!

  • Phani June 21, 2011, 6:32 am

    Hi,
    Can you please post how to send email alerts by using sendmail.

  • jalal hajigholamali July 11, 2011, 3:06 am

    thanks,

    i think “atop” is more powerful than top
    Is is true ?

  • Pradeep VR July 27, 2011, 12:25 am

    Hi frnds i need ONLY cpu usage and name of the process from top command and other columns need to be filtered out, can u help me plsss.

    Thnx.

  • riskisaja August 23, 2011, 8:20 pm

    nice posting sir, thanks you..

  • Durai October 27, 2011, 2:08 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.I would recommend your website to all the linux learners.Please continue your good work.

  • kalaiarasi November 12, 2011, 12:22 am

    Can we create graph using this parameters

  • counterdutch November 12, 2011, 1:05 pm

    for plotting graphs from top look at this.

  • go8765 March 4, 2012, 5:57 pm

    How run it with sorting by memory? And how run 2 tops – one with sorting by memory, second – with sorting by CPU? And how show all it in conky?

  • Muthukumar.L March 27, 2012, 1:27 pm

    Many Thanks for the valuable info.
    Thanks & Regards
    Muthukumar.L

  • chandan April 18, 2012, 10:56 am

    Really good work Ramesh

  • hairo May 3, 2012, 1:32 pm

    Many thanks

  • Mohammed May 6, 2012, 8:12 am

    Thanks for this, can you write a post explaining the first four lines of top command.. I dont see to find it any where.

  • snowfox09 May 20, 2012, 9:34 pm

    Hi RAMESH,
    Nice post. I am wondering how we can monitor the CPU/Mem usage using scripts. You know, some result can only be shown interactively with human interference(eg. press 1 to toggle the usage of between per call and total CPU). Do you know we can toggle that in a script?
    Thanks

  • Rama August 7, 2012, 12:18 am

    Thanks; It is very Nice post ..

    How can we store top command output including cpu utilization.
    I want to capture below line in output
    CPU states: 45.0% user, 0.1% nice, 27.9% system, 12.0% wio, 14.8% idle
    I tried with below options :-
    top > cpu_utl.log
    nohup top & > cpu_utl.log

    but when we cat output of cpu_utl.log ; it doen;t contain cpu utilization.

    Please suggest.
    Thanks,
    Rama

  • srujan gulla April 3, 2013, 8:06 am

    top -M is something which will be useful – human readable memory available.

    Awesome job Ramesh. I am a fan of your blogs, please keep new articles coming.

  • Radhakrishnan May 7, 2013, 12:09 pm

    Batch Mode

    top can also be run in batch mode. Try running the following command:

    $ top -n 1 -b >/tmp/top.out The -n 1 tells top to only show one iteration, and the -b option indicates that the output should be in text suitable for writing to a file or piping to another program such as less.

  • jester July 24, 2013, 6:39 am

    Can I `somehow toggle “z” ON when starting top?

    This is part of my script so I can’t manually turn it on.

  • jester July 24, 2013, 6:55 am

    to Rama:

    A bit late but might help others 🙂

    I think this is what you were looking for:

    top -n 1 -b | grep Cpu > cpu.txt

  • Chan September 17, 2013, 11:17 pm

    Does the “m” on the virtual memory column on the results mean megabytes? according to man top, it would return values in kb but I see some values for the virtual memory in the form ***m. Thanks

  • Anonymous September 12, 2014, 2:36 am

    gr8 article…it really helped me to understand the various options…thankyou so much

  • Lakshman January 23, 2015, 6:26 am

    Hello…!!

    Thanks for sharing valuable info….

  • Nithin February 23, 2016, 6:15 am

    Nice article.