🎁 New User? Get 20% off your first purchase with code NEWUSER20 Register Now →
Menu

Categories

Linux Beginner

What is Top/Htop?

Interactive process viewers that display real-time system resource usage including CPU, memory, and running processes.

Top is the classic process monitor showing CPU, memory, swap, and per-process statistics in real-time. Htop is an improved version with color coding, mouse support, tree view, and easier process management.

Key information includes load average, CPU per core, memory usage, and process lists sortable by CPU%, MEM%, or time. Press k to kill a process, f to filter, and t for tree view (htop). Essential for identifying resource-hungry processes.

Related Terms

Pipe
A mechanism that connects the output of one command directly to the input of another, enabling command chaining.
Linux Bridge
A software-based network switch in the Linux kernel that connects multiple network interfaces at Layer 2, enabling VM and container networking.
Sysfs (/sys)
A virtual filesystem that exports information about kernel subsystems, hardware devices, and device drivers in a structured hierarchy.
Iptables
The traditional Linux firewall tool that filters network packets using configurable chains of rules organized in tables.
GRUB
The Grand Unified Bootloader, a program that loads the operating system kernel into memory during system startup.
Firewalld
A dynamic firewall management tool for Linux that provides a D-Bus interface for managing firewall rules with zones.
View All Linux Terms →