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. Please, note that for
168 no information is available about the percentage of time spent by the CPU in every state.
171 Set the delay between screen updates to
173 seconds. The default delay between updates is \nD seconds.
176 Sort the process display area on the specified field. The field name
177 is the name of the column as seen in the output, but in lower case:
178 \*(lqcpu\*(lq, \*(rqsize\*(lq, \*(rqres\*(lq, \*(rqtime\*(lq,
179 \*(rqpri\*(lq, \*(rqthreads\*(lq, \*(lqtotal\*(lq, \*(rqread\*(lq,
180 \*(rqwrite\*(lq, \*(rqfault\*(lq, \*(rqvcsw\*(lq, \*(rqivcsw\*(lq,
181 \*(lqjid\*(lq, \*(rqswap\*(lq or \*(rqpid\*(lq.
184 Show only those processes owned by
186 This may be either the
193 to limit to host processes.
194 Using this option implies the
199 Show only those processes owned by
201 This option currently only accepts usernames and will not understand
208 fields can be specified as \*(lqinfinite\*(rq, indicating that they can
209 stretch as far as possible. This is accomplished by using any proper
210 prefix of the keywords
217 on an intelligent terminal is, in fact,
220 The environment variable
222 is examined for options before the command line is scanned. This enables
223 a user to set his or her own defaults. The number of processes to display
224 can also be specified in the environment variable
239 are actually toggles. A second specification of any of these options
240 will negate the first. Thus a user who has the environment variable
242 set to \*(lq\-I\*(rq may use the command \*(lqtop \-I\*(rq to see idle processes.
243 .SH "INTERACTIVE MODE"
246 is running in \*(lqinteractive mode\*(rq, it reads commands from the
247 terminal and acts upon them accordingly. In this mode, the terminal is
248 put in \*(lqCBREAK\*(rq, so that a character will be
249 processed as soon as it is typed. Almost always, a key will be
252 is between displays; that is, while it is waiting for
254 seconds to elapse. If this is the case, the command will be
255 processed and the display will be updated immediately thereafter
256 (reflecting any changes that the command may have specified). This
257 happens even if the command was incorrect. If a key is pressed while
259 is in the middle of updating the display, it will finish the update and
260 then process the command. Some commands require additional information,
261 and the user will be prompted accordingly. While typing this information
262 in, the user's erase and kill keys (as set up by the command
264 are recognized, and a newline terminates the input.
266 These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L):
270 .IP "\fBh\fP\ or\ \fB?\fP"
271 Display a summary of the commands (help screen). Version information
272 is included in this display.
279 Change the number of displays to show (prompt for new number).
280 Remember that the next display counts as one, so typing
284 show one final display and then immediately exit.
287 Toggle the display between 'cpu' and 'io' modes.
290 Change the number of processes to display (prompt for new number).
293 Change the number of seconds to delay between displays
294 (prompt for new number).
297 Toggle the display of system processes.
300 Toggle the display of process titles.
303 Send a signal (\*(lqkill\*(rq by default) to a list of processes. This
304 acts similarly to the command
308 Change the priority (the \*(lqnice\*(rq) of a list of processes.
309 This acts similarly to the command
313 Display only processes owned by a specific set of usernames (prompt for
314 username). If the username specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq or \*(lq-\*(rq,
315 then processes belonging to all users will be displayed. Usernames can be added
316 to and removed from the set by prepending them with \*(lq+\*(rq and
317 \*(lq-\*(rq, respectively.
320 Change the order in which the display is sorted. This command is not
321 available on all systems. The sort key names vary from system to system
322 but usually include: \*(lqcpu\*(rq, \*(lqres\*(rq, \*(lqsize\*(rq,
323 \*(lqtime\*(rq. The default is cpu.
326 Display a list of system errors (if any) generated by the last
333 Toggle the display of threads.
338 Toggle the display of idle processes.
341 Toggle the display of
346 Display only processes owned by a specific jail (prompt for jail).
347 If the jail specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq, then processes belonging
348 to all jails and the host will be displayed.
349 This will also enable the display of JID.
352 Toggle the display of per-CPU statistics.
355 Toggle the display of the
360 Toggle the display of swap usage.
363 Toggle the display of the system idle process.
365 The actual display varies depending on the specific variant of Unix
366 that the machine is running. This description may not exactly match
367 what is seen by top running on this particular machine. Differences
368 are listed at the end of this manual entry.
370 The top few lines of the display show general information
371 about the state of the system, including
372 the last process id assigned to a process (on most systems),
373 the three load averages,
375 the number of existing processes,
376 the number of processes in each state
377 (sleeping, running, starting, zombies, and stopped),
378 and a percentage of time spent in each of the processor states
379 (user, nice, system, and idle).
380 It also includes information about physical and virtual memory allocation.
382 The remainder of the screen displays information about individual
383 processes. This display is similar in spirit to
385 but it is not exactly the same. PID is the process id,
386 JID, when displayed, is the
388 ID corresponding to the process,
389 USERNAME is the name of the process's owner (if
391 is specified, a UID column will be substituted for USERNAME),
392 PRI is the current priority of the process,
393 NICE is the nice amount (in the range \-20 to 20),
394 SIZE is the total size of the process (text, data, and stack),
395 RES is the current amount of resident memory,
396 SWAP is the approximate amount of swap, if enabled
397 (SIZE, RES and SWAP are given in kilobytes),
398 STATE is the current state (one of \*(lqSTART\*(rq, \*(lqRUN\*(rq
399 (shown as \*(lqCPUn\*(rq on SMP systems), \*(lqSLEEP\*(rq, \*(lqSTOP\*(rq,
400 \*(lqZOMB\*(rq, \*(lqWAIT\*(rq, \*(lqLOCK\*(rq or the event on which the
402 C is the processor number on which the process is executing
403 (visible only on SMP systems),
404 TIME is the number of system and user cpu seconds that the process has used,
405 WCPU, when displayed, is the weighted cpu percentage (this is the same
409 CPU is the raw percentage and is the field that is sorted to determine
410 the order of the processes, and
411 COMMAND is the name of the command that the process is currently running
412 (if the process is swapped out, this column is marked \*(lq<swapped>\*(rq).
414 If a process is in the \*(lqSLEEP\*(rq or \*(lqLOCK\*(rq state,
415 the state column will report the name of the event or lock on which the
417 Lock names are prefixed with an asterisk \*(lq*\*(rq while sleep events
420 William LeFebvre, EECS Department, Northwestern University
423 TOP user-configurable defaults for options.
426 /dev/kmem kernel memory
428 /dev/mem physical memory
430 /etc/passwd used to map uid numbers to user names
432 /boot/kernel/kernel system image
434 Don't shoot me, but the default for
436 has changed once again. So many people were confused by the fact that
438 wasn't showing them all the processes that I have decided to make the
439 default behavior show idle processes, just like it did in version 2.
440 But to appease folks who can't stand that behavior, I have added the
441 ability to set \*(lqdefault\*(rq options in the environment variable
443 (see the OPTIONS section). Those who want the behavior that version
444 3.0 had need only set the environment variable
448 The command name for swapped processes should be tracked down, but this
449 would make the program run slower.
453 things can change while
455 is collecting information for an update. The picture it gives is only a
456 close approximation to reality.
466 .SH DESCRIPTION OF MEMORY
467 Mem: 61M Active, 86M Inact, 368K Laundry, 22G Wired, 102G Free
468 ARC: 15G Total, 9303M MFU, 6155M MRU, 1464K Anon, 98M Header, 35M Other
469 15G Compressed, 27G Uncompressed, 1.75:1 Ratio, 174M Overhead
470 Swap: 4096M Total, 532M Free, 13% Inuse, 80K In, 104K Out
483 .SS Physical Memory Stats
486 number of bytes active
489 number of clean bytes inactive
492 number of dirty bytes queued for laundering
495 number of bytes wired down, including BIO-level cached file data pages
498 number of bytes used for BIO-level disk caching
503 These stats are only displayed when the ARC is in use.
506 number of wired bytes used for the ZFS ARC
509 number of ARC bytes holding most recently used data
512 number of ARC bytes holding most frequently used data
515 number of ARC bytes holding in flight data
518 number of ARC bytes holding headers
521 miscellaneous ARC bytes
524 bytes of memory used by ARC caches
527 bytes of data stored in ARC caches before compression
530 compression ratio of data cached in the ARC
534 total available swap usage
537 total free swap usage
543 bytes paged in from swap devices (last interval)
546 bytes paged out to swap devices (last interval)