| FAQ (24139) | FAQ (89750) |
|---|---|
| 1 TOP | 1 TOP |
| 2 Version 3.4 | 2 Version 3.5 3 Beta Release 11 |
| 3 4 William LeFebvre | 4 5 William LeFebvre |
| 5 and a cast of dozens | 6 with much help from others |
| 6 7 8FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS 9 10This FAQ is broken out in to several topics. 11 12 13GENERAL 14 15 1. "Where do I get the latest version of top?" 16 | 7 8 9FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS 10 11This FAQ is broken out in to several topics. 12 13 14GENERAL 15 16 1. "Where do I get the latest version of top?" 17 |
| 17The latest version of top is now available at the site "ftp.groupsys.com" in 18the directory "/pub/top". It is also available at "eecs.nwu.edu" in the 19directory "/pub/top". 20 | 18The official site for top is "ftp.groupsys.com" in the directory 19"/pub/top". It is also available from the following mirror sites: 20"pharos.dgim.doc.ca" in /packages/top, "uiarchive.uiuc.edu" in 21/pub/packages/top, "sunsite.auc.dk" in /pub/unix/top. European 22users should consider using the Denmark (dk) site. 23 |
| 21 2. "Is there a web page for top?" 22 | 24 2. "Is there a web page for top?" 25 |
| 23Not at this time, but I am planning one. When it is finally available, you 24will be able to find it at "www.groupsys.com." | 26Yes. Point your browser at http://www.groupsys.com/top. It includes 27all documentation, a nice interactive display which describes the 28various components of the output of top, web-based retrieval of the 29package, year 2000 information, and pointers to the mailing list. |
| 25 26 3. "Is there a mailing list for top?" 27 | 30 31 3. "Is there a mailing list for top?" 32 |
| 28Currently there is a top developers mailing list that is used by beta 29testers and other people who help me port the program to various machines. 30I am planning a general mailing list for announcements and such, but it is 31not yet available. | 33The official list for announcements is "top-announce@groupsys.com". 34This list is managed by "majordomo@groupsys.com". Announcements of 35importance to all top users will be sent to this list, including new 36releases, availability of beta test versions, emergency revisions and 37patches, etc. Anyone is welcome to join top-announce. This is a 38read-only list. The list of subscribers will not (intentionally) be 39made available, and postings to the list are limited. |
| 32 | 40 |
| 33 4. "How can I find out when all these things become available?" | 41In addition, there is a top developers mailing list that is used by 42beta testers and other people who help me port the program to various 43machines. Membership to this list is solely at my discretion. If you 44feel qualified to act as a beta tester, or if you are doing development 45work on top (such as porting to a new platform), you may submit a 46request by sending a message to "top-spinners-request@groupsys.com" 47containing the word "subscribe". I will contact you within a few days, 48as my schedule permits. |
| 34 | 49 |
| 35Information about the web site and the mailing list will be made available 36in future distributions of top. New distributions will be announced on the 37appropriate Usenet newsgroups (including comp.sources.unix). | 50 4. "What about Year 2000 compliance"? |
| 38 | 51 |
| 52Top should not experience any problems with the transition to the year 532000. A full statement concerning top and the year 2000 can be found 54in the file "Y2K" included with the distribution. 55 56 |
|
| 39 5. "Why does it take so long for a new version of top to go through the 40 beta test process?" 41 | 57 5. "Why does it take so long for a new version of top to go through the 58 beta test process?" 59 |
| 42This is completely my fault. I have just not had the time recently to give 43top the attention it deserves. I thank everyone for their patience, and I 44hope that with the recent changes in the direction of my career that I can 45spend more time on this. | 60This is completely my fault. I have just not had the time to give top 61the attention it deserves. I thank everyone for their patience, and I 62hope that with the recent changes in the direction of my career that I 63can spend more time on this. |
| 46 47 6. "Top is not written in ANSI C. Do you ever plan to change that?" 48 49Top predates ANSI C by about 5 years. Yeah, it'll get "fixed" eventually. | 64 65 6. "Top is not written in ANSI C. Do you ever plan to change that?" 66 67Top predates ANSI C by about 5 years. Yeah, it'll get "fixed" eventually. |
| 50Probably in 3.5. | 68Probably in 3.6. |
| 51 52 53CONFIGURING 54 55 7. "Configure said that it saw /proc and is recommending that I install top 56 setuid root. Is there any way around this? Is it safe?" 57 58There is no way around it. Complain to POSIX. Every effort has been made --- 6 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 65favorable for the process). This problem has been fixed for the Solaris 2.x 66modules, but may still exist in others. We will hopefully fix this up in 67the next release. 68 69 8. "Why is Configure a c-shell script? I thought c-shell scripts were 70 evil?" 71 72They are. :-) I'll probably be rewriting the Configure script for the | 69 70 71CONFIGURING 72 73 7. "Configure said that it saw /proc and is recommending that I install top 74 setuid root. Is there any way around this? Is it safe?" 75 76There is no way around it. Complain to POSIX. Every effort has been made --- 6 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 83favorable for the process). This problem has been fixed for the Solaris 2.x 84modules, but may still exist in others. We will hopefully fix this up in 85the next release. 86 87 8. "Why is Configure a c-shell script? I thought c-shell scripts were 88 evil?" 89 90They are. :-) I'll probably be rewriting the Configure script for the |
| 73next release. | 91next release, or switching to something like Gnu configure. |
| 74 75 76COMPILING 77 78 9. "We just upgraded our operating system to a new version and top broke. 79 What should we do?" 80 81Recompile it. Top is very sensitive to changes in internal kernel data --- 35 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 117make your window bigger. 118 11913. "I tried to compile top with gcc and it doesn't work. I get 120 compilation errors in the include files, or I get an executable that 121 dumps core, or top displays incorrect numbers in some of the displays. 122 What's wrong?" 123 124Gnu CC likes very much to use its own include files. Not being a gcc | 92 93 94COMPILING 95 96 9. "We just upgraded our operating system to a new version and top broke. 97 What should we do?" 98 99Recompile it. Top is very sensitive to changes in internal kernel data --- 35 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 135make your window bigger. 136 13713. "I tried to compile top with gcc and it doesn't work. I get 138 compilation errors in the include files, or I get an executable that 139 dumps core, or top displays incorrect numbers in some of the displays. 140 What's wrong?" 141 142Gnu CC likes very much to use its own include files. Not being a gcc |
| 125expert, I can't explain why it does this. But I can tell you that if you 126upgrade your operating system (say from Solaris 2.4 to Solaris 2.5) after 127installing gcc, then the include files that gcc uses will be incorrect, 128especially those found in the "sys" directory. Your choices are: (1) 129rebuild and reinstall the "standard" include files for gcc (look for a 130script in the distribution called "fixincludes"), (2) compile machine.c 131with "CFLAGS=-I/usr/include" then make the rest of the object files 132normally, or (3) use "cc". | 143expert, I can't explain why it does this. But I can tell you that if 144you upgrade your operating system (say from Solaris 2.4 to Solaris 1452.5) after installing gcc, then the include files that gcc uses will 146be incorrect, especially those found in the "sys" directory. Your 147choices are: (1) rebuild and reinstall the "standard" include files 148for gcc (look for scripts in the distribution called "fixincludes" and 149"fixinc.svr4"), (2) compile machine.c with "CFLAGS=-I/usr/include" 150then make the rest of the object files normally, or (3) use "cc". 151Solaris 2.6 users should also consult FAQ #20. |
| 133 13414. "The cpu state percentages are all wrong, indicating that my machine is 135 using 95% system time when it is clearly idle. What's wrong?" 136 137This can happen if you compiled with gcc using the wrong include files. 138See the previous question. 139 140 --- 41 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 182top again. 183 18419. "Under Solaris 2, when I try to run top it complains that it can't open 185 the library "libucb.so.1". So I changed the LIBS line in m_sunos5.c 186 to include -R/usr/ucblib to make sure that the dynamic linker will look 187 there when top runs. I figured this was just an oversight. Was I 188 right?" 189 | 152 15314. "The cpu state percentages are all wrong, indicating that my machine is 154 using 95% system time when it is clearly idle. What's wrong?" 155 156This can happen if you compiled with gcc using the wrong include files. 157See the previous question. 158 159 --- 41 unchanged lines hidden (view full) --- 201top again. 202 20319. "Under Solaris 2, when I try to run top it complains that it can't open 204 the library "libucb.so.1". So I changed the LIBS line in m_sunos5.c 205 to include -R/usr/ucblib to make sure that the dynamic linker will look 206 there when top runs. I figured this was just an oversight. Was I 207 right?" 208 |
| 190No, you were not right. As distributed, top requires NO alterations for 191successful compilation and operations under Solaris 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 192and 2.5. You probably compiled top with /usr/ucb/cc instead of the real C | 209No, you were not right. As distributed, top requires NO alterations 210for successful compilation and operations under any release of Solaris 2112. You probably compiled top with /usr/ucb/cc instead of the real C |
| 193compiler. See FAQ #10 for more details. 194 | 212compiler. See FAQ #10 for more details. 213 |
| 21420. "When I try to compile top under Solaris 2.6 using gcc I get compile 215 time errors. There appear to be problems with the include files, 216 such as 'u_rlimit has incomplete type' and/or 'u_saved_rlimit has 217 incomplete type'. I've already run fixinc.svr4 as per FAQ #13. 218 Why didn't that fix it?" |
|
| 195 | 219 |
| 220Only top versions 3.5 and later are compatible with Solaris 2.6. Make 221sure you are using the most up-to-date version. Earlier beta release 222copies of version 3.5 had additional problems when compiled with gcc. 223Retrieve the official version 3.5 (non-beta) release from one of the 224sites listed in FAQ #1 or FAQ #2. 225 226 |
|
| 196SCO PROBLEMS 197 | 227SCO PROBLEMS 228 |
| 19820. "When I try to run Configure, it complains about a syntax error." | 22921. "When I try to run Configure, it complains about a syntax error." |
| 199 | 230 |
| 200Some versions of SCO's csh do not understand the syntax "$<". This breaks 201Configure. You'll just have to hack around it for now: the Configure script 202is going to be completely redone in the near future anyway. | 231Some versions of SCO's csh do not understand the syntax "$<". Earlier 232releases of top depended on this syntax to read input from the installer's 233terminal during the installation process. Version 3.5 fixes this. |
| 203 204 205SVR42 PROBLEMS 206 | 234 235 236SVR42 PROBLEMS 237 |
| 20721. "The load average and memory displays don't work right. Why?" | 23822. "The memory display doesn't work right. Why?" |
| 208 209This is a known bug with the svr42 module. The problem has been traced down 210to a potential bug in the "mem" driver. The author of the svr42 module is 211working on a fix. 212 213 214STILL STUCK 215 | 239 240This is a known bug with the svr42 module. The problem has been traced down 241to a potential bug in the "mem" driver. The author of the svr42 module is 242working on a fix. 243 244 245STILL STUCK 246 |
| 21622. I'm still stuck. To whom do I report problems with top?" | 24723. I'm still stuck. To whom do I report problems with top?" |
| 217 218The most common problems are caused by top's sensitivity to internal kernel 219data structures. So make sure that you are using the right include files, 220and make sure that you test out top on the same machine where you compiled 221it. Sun's BSD Source Compatability Mode is also a common culprit. Make 222sure you aren't using either /usr/ucb/cc or any of the libraries in 223/usr/ucblib. Finally, make sure you are using the correct module. If there 224does not appear to be one appropriate for your computer, then top probably 225will not work on your system. 226 227If after reading all of this file and checking everything you can you are 228still stuck, then send mail to "wnl@groupsys.com". I will answer your mail 229when I have time. Please bear with me in that regard! If it looks like the 230problem is machine-specific, I will forward the report along to the module's 231author. If you would like to converse directly with the module author, the 232authors' names are listed at the beginning of the module .c file in the 233"machine" directory. | 248 249The most common problems are caused by top's sensitivity to internal kernel 250data structures. So make sure that you are using the right include files, 251and make sure that you test out top on the same machine where you compiled 252it. Sun's BSD Source Compatability Mode is also a common culprit. Make 253sure you aren't using either /usr/ucb/cc or any of the libraries in 254/usr/ucblib. Finally, make sure you are using the correct module. If there 255does not appear to be one appropriate for your computer, then top probably 256will not work on your system. 257 258If after reading all of this file and checking everything you can you are 259still stuck, then send mail to "wnl@groupsys.com". I will answer your mail 260when I have time. Please bear with me in that regard! If it looks like the 261problem is machine-specific, I will forward the report along to the module's 262author. If you would like to converse directly with the module author, the 263authors' names are listed at the beginning of the module .c file in the 264"machine" directory. |