what does the top command do in linux?

This prints out the complete information. In the image below, weve pressed the Right Arrow a few times to see the COMMAND column. Share with your friends. Display All Running Processes When used without any arguments, the top command outputs a list of all currently running processes. The command offers a lot of flexibility in terms of displaying the data in the output. Linux Top Command Help and Examples - Computer Hope Ive added some text to our New-File that we created earlier. The fifth line shows the total amount (also in kibibytes) of swap memory, and how much is free, used, and available. With the use of the & symbol, I can pass a process into the background. Ever wanted to view the calendar in the terminal? The accepted arguments and their format varies between commands and software, but there are some general conventions. This portion of the summary area is also influenced by the `H' interactive command toggle, as reflected in the total label which shows either Tasks or . As we add more articles to JournalDev, we will continue to add links to those articles here. Even though I dont need it, its a really cool addition! There are two commands in this command line: The first command uses ! Ive created a file named Words with a lot of words arranged alphabetically in it. You can use echo to seethe value a variable holdsjust precede the variable name with the dollar sign ($), as shown below: To create a variable, you must give it a name and provide a value for it to hold. Learn more about the cp command (Link to article) and mv command (Link to article). Clear the filters by pressing =. The very first line displays short running system information, such as load average, uptime, and the number of currently logged-in users. We select and review products independently. The pwd command allows you to print the current working directory on your terminal. AWK Command in Linux with Examples You can also use the period in commands to represent the path to your current directory. The basic syntax of the command is as below. For example, we entered the following filter: The top command now shows only the processes that used more than 5% memory. The output could be like this: abhishek@linuxhandbook:~$ which java /usr/bin/java. This is going to be one of the most frequently used Linux commands you must know of. The running process list and summary keep updating automatically and by default, the screen refreshes every three seconds. We can use echo to print the value of the string variable once more and check this: Bash shell supports three wildcards, one of which is the question mark (?). How to Use the Echo Command on Linux Now coming to the zip and unzip commands. This command matches all files called source, regardless of the file extension. What does '-c' or '-m' mean in the command line? In the above command, we created a copy of the file named Sample. Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter. As you can see, a new bash process with PID 14490 is created. You do nothave to use the dollar sign to create a variable. For example, the default display of the top command shows memory units in KiB: Press the E key once to change display units to MiB: Press the lowercase e key to switch process list memory units among kibibyte (KiB), mebibyte (MiB), gibibyte (GiB), and tebibyte (TiB) in the process area: You can choose to display or hide some of the content from the top command output. Usually, this command shows the summary information of the system and the list of processes or threads which are currently managed by the Linux Kernel. Press the Up and Down arrows to move the highlight through the list of fields. Well show you which characters are special or meta- characters, as well as how you can use them functionally and literally. The load average is broken down into three time increments. You hop up one level, and then back down one into a different directory. You can use this to move up one level in the directory tree. Learn more about the df command(Link to article). To get the top command, all you need to do is type the word top in your terminal. Install fortune Command $ sudo apt install fortune [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint] $ sudo yum install fortune [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux] $ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/fortune [On Gentoo Linux] $ sudo apk add fortune [On Alpine . You can also redirect echo to create text files and log files. How to Use the top Command in Linux - phoenixNAP t: This one sorts the long listing . You can try this same command with any other domain name or IP address to see all the routers that your data packets pass through to reach the destination. Now obviously, localhost is just one hop (which is the network interface itself). The top command offers various options that you can use to format your results. Lets see their basic usage. The program prompts you to enter a filter expression. We show you how. filename [options] How does source command work? IPTables directly passes firewall rules to netfilter while UFW configures the rules in IPTables which then sends those rules to netfilter. A filename that contains a wildcard forms a template that matches a range of filenames, rather than just one. The main difference between the functions of the two commands is that the chmod command allows changing file permissions, while chown allows us to change the file owners. 'S' and 'D' are two sleep states, where . (short for "Client URL") is a command line tool that enables data transfer over various network protocols. The available options are: The value that is currently in use is the first item on lines four and five. The first row on your screen show system time, system running time, number of logged-in users, and system load average in the last one, five, and 15 minutes. The content published on this site are community contributions and are for informational purpose only AND ARE NOT, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE, RED HAT DOCUMENTATION, SUPPORT, OR ADVICE. Home SysAdmin How to Use the top Command in Linux. Press the following keys to change the sorting order: The following example shows results sorted by the PID column: Press the c key to show or hide the complete command: Press the n key to specify the number of processes to display on the screen: We specified 10, so only 10 processes are displayed: The following table describes the top command options that will help you customize the output: In this tutorial, we learned about the top command in Linux. Add these to your list of Linux commands you must know. The usermod command, on the other hand, is used to modify existing users. Having worked as an educator and content writer, combined with his lifelong passion for all things high-tech, Bosko strives to simplify intricate concepts and make them user-friendly. The latter includes memory thats expected to be recoverable from caches. acknowledge that you have read and understood our. Linux Top Command Explained - LinuxOPsys We typed 10 and pressed Enter, so 10 processes appear in the task area. You can press t to swap the CPU displays to simple ASCII graphs that show the percentage of usage for each CPU. To create a stream, you use the left-angle bracket ( < ), as shown in the following example, to redirect a file into a command: When a command has input redirected into it, it might behave differently than when it reads from a named file. There are multiple parameters that can be used but well work with the basic command here. Lets see an example below. The command starts in interactive command mode, showing the active processes and other system information. 08-D.9.2: Process Troubleshooting - top command We hope this article was useful to you. In the previous section, we deleted the Sample-Copy file. Values such as id, wa, and st help identify whether the system is overworked. It provides a dynamic real-time view of the running system. The double period or double dot (..) represents the parent directory of your current one. Both these firewalls are very comprehensive and can allow you to create any kind of configuration required for your network. The first command is the text within the square brackets; The second command is the text that follows the double ampersands. On the command line, you can place arguments after the command in order to give the software you're about to run some more information about what you'd like it to do. But lets demonstrate their functionality to make things more clear. In the current day, the command is simply used to create bootable USB for Linux but there still are some things important you can do with the command. Running this command will open an interactive command . Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction, LLC, a technical writing, editing, and IT project company based in Colorado Springs, CO. Damon authored many CompTIA Official Instructor and Student Guides (Linux+, Cloud+, Cloud Essentials+, Server+) and developed a broad library of interactive, scored labs. You can, however, launch an application as a background process and continue to use the terminal window. Linux TOP command explained - Linux.com It isnt truly ignored, however, because its added to your command history. What Is a PEM File and How Do You Use It? Using Linux command on a regular basis? Prompts you to specify the delay before updating the screen, overriding the default value. The file name is now changed. The cp and mv commands are equivalent to the copy-paste and cut-paste in Windows. And it doesn't have to be static text. ). After over 30 years in the IT industry, he is now a full-time technology journalist. The text thats aligned to the left is the text thats only present in file 1. Im sure there are people who are terminal fans and this is a really amazing option for them. Specify the maximum number of iterations you want, Displays only the processes matching the specified user ID or user name. The display is best described as functional, rather than intuitive, and abbreviations abound. linux is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a powerful. You can also use the hash to trim a string variable and remove some text from the beginning. We are glad you liked the article. It collects and displays information about your computer hardware (like the processor, RAM, and network cards installed) and Windows installation (version, install date, hotfixes applied, etc. While we believe that this content benefits our community, we have not yet thoroughly reviewed it. Firstly, it is tremendously useful. What is Top Command and How to Read Top Command? - Fastwebhost His writing has been published by howtogeek.com, cloudsavvyit.com, itenterpriser.com, and opensource.com. As you can see in the above screenshot, we created the JournalDev directory with just this simple command. Now every time you enter lsl or rmd in the terminal, youll receive the output that youd have received if you had used the full commands. The COMMAND column is off-screen, to the rightit didnt fit in the image above, but well see it shortly. To quit top, press q. Wed like to help. The process of swapping data back and forth between physical RAM and storage drives is time-consuming and uses system resources, so it's best to minimize the use of virtual memory. Work with a partner to get up and running in the cloud, or become a partner. Click below to sign up and get $200 of credit to try our products over 60 days! The ls command is used to list files and directories in the current working directory. Consider the following filename template: It matches badge.txt because the wildcard represents any sequence of characters or no characters. After over 30 years in the IT industry, he is now a full-time technology journalist. In the next command, we have extracted those files from the archive. Press the z key to add color to the display: By default, the color changes to red. Press m once more to remove the CPU lines altogether. If for some reason, your bash prompt doesnt update, just type in bash and you should see the updated terminal prompt. How to Use the which Command on Linux Thank you for your valuable feedback! Wherever you are in the filesystem, you can use this command to go to your home directory: You can also use this command with relative paths. In general, the prompt usually show the login user name, machine hostname, and current working directory and ended with a dollar ($), percentage (%), or hash (#) sign. Choose which display element you want to change by pressing: 3. You will be notified via email once the article is available for improvement. top Output: You can navigate the output using the Up, Down, PageUp, and PageDown keys on your keyboard. In the above example, were adding executable permissions to the loop.sh file with the chmod command. 2022 Copyright phoenixNAP | Global IT Services. This lists all text files that contain exactly five characters in the filename: You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard to stand for any sequence of characters, including no characters. The relevant character in the filename must then match at least one of the characters in the wildcard character set. sort is using the -r (reverse) option, so the sorted results will appear in reverse order. The output will show as many Linux processes as it can fit on your screen. The Essential Toolkit for the Terminal Linux includes a large number of commands, but we've chosen 37 of the most important ones to present here. While most administrators quickly grasp the lower portion of top's output, the upper part is harder to interpret. The syntax is: echo [option] [string] For example, use the following command to print Hello, World! The processor is likely overworked if 1.0 (or higher) is displayed. The Linux grep command is a string and pattern matching utility that displays matching lines from multiple files. Linux "top" command: What are us, sy, ni, id, wa, hi, si and st (for For a comprehensive list of other useful Linux commands, download our Linux commands cheat sheet. The second line shows the number of tasks and their states: running, stopped, sleeping, orzombie. The third linedisplays the followingcentral processing unit (CPU) values: The fourth line shows the total amount (in kibibytes) of physical memory, and how much is free, used, and buffered or cached. Dave McKay first used computers when punched paper tape was in vogue, and he has been programming ever since. The passwd command lets you set the password for your own account, or if you have the permissions, set the password for other accounts. For example, we want to show only the top 5 processes: The top command allows changing the process priority (nice value). of CPU processes, RAM utilisation and it lists all the processes running/utilised by the users in your server. To run the top command, type top in the command line and press Enter. By default, top updates its display every three secondsyoull notice a slight flicker when it does. Choose a target area, as shown in the following example, to modify the color. To scroll through the results, use the Up and Down arrows and Page Down and Page Up keys. He is a former sysadmin for US Figure Skating. This happened to be a very long article but Im sure will be something you can refer to whenever required. ps is most frequently used with the following combination of options: BSD form: ps aux. Now, your terminal prompt should usually have the complete directory anyway. But in case it doesnt, this can be a quick command to see the directory that youre in. The final values are the load average for the system. And if you need to allow processes to complete even after logging out, check out our post How to Use Linux nohup Command. The cd command is one of the important Linux commands you must know and it will help you to navigate through directories. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. The final two lines of top's output provide information on memory utilization. The rm command is used to delete files and folders and is one of the important Linux commands you must know. You can change it to any folder you want but Ive used /mnt as its pretty much a system default folder for mounting devices. The first press replaces the statistics with an ASCII graph. You can press shortcut keys to change how information is displayed on the top dashboard. [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form) ln [OPTION]. linux - machine hostname: the machine you are operating. By the looks of it, comm command makes the most sense when were trying to compare larger files and would like to see everything arranged together. 10 Ways to Use the top Command in Linux - MUO During his career, he has worked as a freelance programmer, manager of an international software development team, an IT services project manager, and, most recently, as a Data Protection Officer. Press capital E to cycle through the units used to display memory values in these options:kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, tebibytes, pebibytes, and exbibytes. Here, well usecat to feed the contents of the words.txt file into grep, which extracts any line that contains either a lower- or uppercase C. grepwill then pass these lines tosort. Your command above is saying to run that shell-script using the bourne shell. The cmp command only tells use the line number which is different. The Linux top command-line utility displays a table of processes on your computer and also displays a dynamic real-time status of the tasks managed by the Kernel. A pipe chains commands together. Learn more about the ifconfig command(Link to article). The next line displays total, running, sleeping, stopped, and zombie Linux processes. Damon has 20 years of experience as a technical trainer covering Linux, Windows Server, and security content. Make life simpler by automating network checks with tools like Expect, Bash, Netcat, and Nmap instead. But if you launch another application, such as gedit, you cannot use your terminal window until you close the application. From man bash: If a command is terminated by the control operator &, the shell executes the command in the background in a subshell. As you can see, the head command showed 10 lines from the top of the file. Learn more about the export command(Link to article). In the above case, since we were moving the file within the same directory, it acted as rename. packs a lot of punch when you need it to! But in some situations where a command has too many arguments that you need to type, its best to create a shorthand version of the same. Emphasize the information in the output by adding color to the output. The ps command accepts a vast number of options that can be used to display a specific group of processes and different information about the process, but only a handful are needed in day-to-day usage. Today well look at 50+ Linux commands you must know! If you simply hit Enter,topsends the SIGTERM (kill) signal. You can use a forward-slash (/)often just called a slashto separate the directories in a pathname. -b. Batch-mode operation. The value is in seconds. Pressing x highlights the column used to sort the process list. The history command lists your command history, and you then type the number of the command you wish to re-run with ! As you can see in the image, the ssh server is running on our system. Terminal window access and familiarity with command-line interface. The third row represents CPU usage information. Press m to cycle the memory and swap memory lines through different display options. The less command allows use to break down the output and scroll through it with the use of the enter or space keys. You can even display information in color, create elementary graphs, and highlight running tasks. The ls command is used for listing the contents of a directory. linux linux which one you choose. The Linux top command is one of the stalwarts of Unix-like operating systems. The new nice value is applied to the process immediately. Getting yourself well versed with the package manager of your distribution will make things much easier for you in the long run. Becausedouble ampersands separate the two commands, Bash will only execute the second if the firstsucceeds. UFW makes things extremely easy. 2. The top utility is a commonly used tool for displaying system-performance information. For this article, were running Ubuntu 18.04 with all patches applied, and version 3.3.12 of top. The default color output looks as follows: You can further customize the display options using the following steps: 1. Learn more about alias command (LInk to article). This tutorial offers an overview of SFTP commands and options, explains how they work, and provides examples. 50 Bash Script Examples to Kickstart Your Learning, Displaying Processes for the Specific User, Sorting Processes by Memory and CPU Usage, Choosing the Number of Processes to display, How to Update Firmware on Ubuntu using fwupd. Just press Enter to use the process ID of the task at the top of the process window. The command also supports graphical display options of memory and swap memory lines. Youll be prompted for the name or UID. The tool supports various operations for advanced text processing and facilitates expressing complex data selections. It cannot print a filename. The default top display crams as much information as possible in the terminal window. Each value represents the time CPU spends executing Linux processes: The fourth and fifth entries show physical memory (RAM) and swap memory lines in kibibytes (KiB). Similar to the whereis command, youll receive the information for any command that you type after the whatis command. Most users are familiar with the decimal measurement, but it is not as accurate as the binary form. What does $(command) & do? You can use it directly on the command line or include it in a script. THANK YOU! Look at how easy the syntax becomes. The service command in Linux is used for starting and stopping different services within the operating system. As you can see in the above example, the cat command when used on our New-File, prints the contents of the file. If you wish to search for a specific string within an output, the grep command comes into the picture. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read billions of times. Its a very basic command and solves its purpose very well. Pressing q will simply exit the command mode.

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