1 .\" NOTE: changes to the manual page for "top" should be made in the
2 .\" file "top.X" and NOT in the file "top.1".
9 top \- display and update information about the top cpu processes
30 .\" This defines appropriate quote strings for nroff and troff
35 .\" Just in case these number registers aren't set yet...
41 processes on the system and periodically updates this information.
44 If standard output is an intelligent terminal (see below) then
45 as many processes as will fit on the terminal screen are displayed
46 by default. Otherwise, a good number of them are shown (around 20).
48 Raw cpu percentage is used to rank the processes. If
50 is given, then the top
52 processes will be displayed instead of the default.
55 makes a distinction between terminals that support advanced capabilities
56 and those that do not. This
57 distinction affects the choice of defaults for certain options. In the
58 remainder of this document, an \*(lqintelligent\*(rq terminal is one that
59 supports cursor addressing, clear screen, and clear to end of line.
60 Conversely, a \*(lqdumb\*(rq terminal is one that does not support such
61 features. If the output of
63 is redirected to a file, it acts as if it were being run on a dumb
68 Toggle CPU display mode.
69 By default top displays the weighted CPU percentage in the WCPU column
70 (this is the same value that
75 flag is passed it toggles between \*(lqraw cpu\*(rq mode
76 and \*(lqweighted cpu\*(rq mode, showing the \*(lqCPU\*(rq or
77 the \*(lqWCPU\*(rq column respectively.
80 Show system processes in the display. Normally, system processes such as
81 the pager and the swapper are not shown. This option makes them visible.
84 Display command names derived from the argv[] vector, rather than real
85 executable name. It's useful when you want to watch applications, that
86 puts their status information there. If the real name differs from argv[0],
87 it will be displayed in parenthesis.
90 Use \*(lqbatch\*(rq mode. In this mode, all input from the terminal is
91 ignored. Interrupt characters (such as ^C and ^\e) still have an effect.
92 This is the default on a dumb terminal, or when the output is not a terminal.
95 Display each thread for a multithreaded process individually.
96 By default a single summary line is displayed for each process.
99 Use \*(lqinteractive\*(rq mode. In this mode, any input is immediately
100 read for processing. See the section on \*(lqInteractive Mode\*(rq
101 for an explanation of
102 which keys perform what functions. After the command is processed, the
103 screen will immediately be updated, even if the command was not
104 understood. This mode is the default when standard output is an
105 intelligent terminal.
108 Do not display idle processes.
109 By default, top displays both active and idle processes.
122 Display either 'cpu' or 'io' statistics. Default is 'cpu'.
125 Use \*(lqnon-interactive\*(rq mode. This is identical to \*(lqbatch\*(rq
129 Display per-cpu CPU usage statistics.
134 to -20 so that it will run faster. This can be used when the system is
135 being very sluggish to improve the possibility of discovering the problem.
136 This option can only be used by root.
139 Do not take the time to map uid numbers to usernames. Normally,
141 will read as much of the file \*(lq/etc/passwd\*(rq as is necessary to map
142 all the user id numbers it encounters into login names. This option
143 disables all that, while possibly decreasing execution time. The uid
144 numbers are displayed instead of the names.
147 Write version number information to stderr then exit immediately.
148 No other processing takes place when this option is used. To see current
149 revision information while top is running, use the help command \*(lq?\*(rq.
152 Display approximate swap usage for each process.
155 Do not display the system idle process.
160 displays, then exit. A display is considered to be one update of the
161 screen. This option allows the user to select the number of displays he
164 automatically exits. For intelligent terminals, no upper limit
165 is set. The default is 1 for dumb terminals.
168 Set the delay between screen updates to
170 seconds. The default delay between updates is \nD seconds.
173 Sort the process display area on the specified field. The field name
174 is the name of the column as seen in the output, but in lower case:
175 \*(lqcpu\*(lq, \*(rqsize\*(lq, \*(rqres\*(lq, \*(rqtime\*(lq,
176 \*(rqpri\*(lq, \*(rqthreads\*(lq, \*(lqtotal\*(lq, \*(rqread\*(lq,
177 \*(rqwrite\*(lq, \*(rqfault\*(lq, \*(rqvcsw\*(lq, \*(rqivcsw\*(lq,
178 \*(lqjid\*(lq, \*(rqswap\*(lq or \*(rqpid\*(lq.
181 Show only those processes owned by
183 This may be either the
190 to limit to host processes.
191 Using this option implies the
196 Show only those processes owned by
198 This option currently only accepts usernames and will not understand
205 fields can be specified as \*(lqinfinite\*(rq, indicating that they can
206 stretch as far as possible. This is accomplished by using any proper
207 prefix of the keywords
214 on an intelligent terminal is, in fact,
217 The environment variable
219 is examined for options before the command line is scanned. This enables
220 a user to set his or her own defaults. The number of processes to display
221 can also be specified in the environment variable
236 are actually toggles. A second specification of any of these options
237 will negate the first. Thus a user who has the environment variable
239 set to \*(lq\-I\*(rq may use the command \*(lqtop \-I\*(rq to see idle processes.
240 .SH "INTERACTIVE MODE"
243 is running in \*(lqinteractive mode\*(rq, it reads commands from the
244 terminal and acts upon them accordingly. In this mode, the terminal is
245 put in \*(lqCBREAK\*(rq, so that a character will be
246 processed as soon as it is typed. Almost always, a key will be
249 is between displays; that is, while it is waiting for
251 seconds to elapse. If this is the case, the command will be
252 processed and the display will be updated immediately thereafter
253 (reflecting any changes that the command may have specified). This
254 happens even if the command was incorrect. If a key is pressed while
256 is in the middle of updating the display, it will finish the update and
257 then process the command. Some commands require additional information,
258 and the user will be prompted accordingly. While typing this information
259 in, the user's erase and kill keys (as set up by the command
261 are recognized, and a newline terminates the input.
263 These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L):
267 .IP "\fBh\fP\ or\ \fB?\fP"
268 Display a summary of the commands (help screen). Version information
269 is included in this display.
276 Change the number of displays to show (prompt for new number).
277 Remember that the next display counts as one, so typing
281 show one final display and then immediately exit.
284 Toggle the display between 'cpu' and 'io' modes.
287 Change the number of processes to display (prompt for new number).
290 Change the number of seconds to delay between displays
291 (prompt for new number).
294 Toggle the display of system processes.
297 Toggle the display of process titles.
300 Send a signal (\*(lqkill\*(rq by default) to a list of processes. This
301 acts similarly to the command
305 Change the priority (the \*(lqnice\*(rq) of a list of processes.
306 This acts similarly to the command
310 Display only processes owned by a specific set of usernames (prompt for
311 username). If the username specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq or \*(lq-\*(rq,
312 then processes belonging to all users will be displayed. Usernames can be added
313 to and removed from the set by prepending them with \*(lq+\*(rq and
314 \*(lq-\*(rq, respectively.
317 Change the order in which the display is sorted. This command is not
318 available on all systems. The sort key names vary from system to system
319 but usually include: \*(lqcpu\*(rq, \*(lqres\*(rq, \*(lqsize\*(rq,
320 \*(lqtime\*(rq. The default is cpu.
323 Display a list of system errors (if any) generated by the last
330 Toggle the display of threads.
335 Toggle the display of idle processes.
338 Toggle the display of
343 Display only processes owned by a specific jail (prompt for jail).
344 If the jail specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq, then processes belonging
345 to all jails and the host will be displayed.
346 This will also enable the display of JID.
349 Toggle the display of per-CPU statistics.
352 Toggle the display of the
357 Toggle the display of swap usage.
360 Toggle the display of the system idle process.
362 The actual display varies depending on the specific variant of Unix
363 that the machine is running. This description may not exactly match
364 what is seen by top running on this particular machine. Differences
365 are listed at the end of this manual entry.
367 The top few lines of the display show general information
368 about the state of the system, including
369 the last process id assigned to a process (on most systems),
370 the three load averages,
372 the number of existing processes,
373 the number of processes in each state
374 (sleeping, running, starting, zombies, and stopped),
375 and a percentage of time spent in each of the processor states
376 (user, nice, system, and idle).
377 It also includes information about physical and virtual memory allocation.
379 The remainder of the screen displays information about individual
380 processes. This display is similar in spirit to
382 but it is not exactly the same. PID is the process id,
383 JID, when displayed, is the
385 ID corresponding to the process,
386 USERNAME is the name of the process's owner (if
388 is specified, a UID column will be substituted for USERNAME),
389 PRI is the current priority of the process,
390 NICE is the nice amount (in the range \-20 to 20),
391 SIZE is the total size of the process (text, data, and stack),
392 RES is the current amount of resident memory,
393 SWAP is the approximate amount of swap, if enabled
394 (SIZE, RES and SWAP are given in kilobytes),
395 STATE is the current state (one of \*(lqSTART\*(rq, \*(lqRUN\*(rq
396 (shown as \*(lqCPUn\*(rq on SMP systems), \*(lqSLEEP\*(rq, \*(lqSTOP\*(rq,
397 \*(lqZOMB\*(rq, \*(lqWAIT\*(rq, \*(lqLOCK\*(rq or the event on which the
399 C is the processor number on which the process is executing
400 (visible only on SMP systems),
401 TIME is the number of system and user cpu seconds that the process has used,
402 WCPU, when displayed, is the weighted cpu percentage (this is the same
406 CPU is the raw percentage and is the field that is sorted to determine
407 the order of the processes, and
408 COMMAND is the name of the command that the process is currently running
409 (if the process is swapped out, this column is marked \*(lq<swapped>\*(rq).
411 If a process is in the \*(lqSLEEP\*(rq or \*(lqLOCK\*(rq state,
412 the state column will report the name of the event or lock on which the
414 Lock names are prefixed with an asterisk \*(lq*\*(rq while sleep events
417 William LeFebvre, EECS Department, Northwestern University
420 TOP user-configurable defaults for options.
423 /dev/kmem kernel memory
425 /dev/mem physical memory
427 /etc/passwd used to map uid numbers to user names
429 /boot/kernel/kernel system image
431 Don't shoot me, but the default for
433 has changed once again. So many people were confused by the fact that
435 wasn't showing them all the processes that I have decided to make the
436 default behavior show idle processes, just like it did in version 2.
437 But to appease folks who can't stand that behavior, I have added the
438 ability to set \*(lqdefault\*(rq options in the environment variable
440 (see the OPTIONS section). Those who want the behavior that version
441 3.0 had need only set the environment variable
445 The command name for swapped processes should be tracked down, but this
446 would make the program run slower.
450 things can change while
452 is collecting information for an update. The picture it gives is only a
453 close approximation to reality.