top.X revision 179911
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". 3.\" $FreeBSD: head/contrib/top/top.X 179911 2008-06-21 15:48:16Z ru $ 4.nr N %topn% 5.nr D %delay% 6.TH TOP 1 Local 7.UC 4 8.SH NAME 9top \- display and update information about the top cpu processes 10.SH SYNOPSIS 11.B top 12[ 13.B \-abCHIijnPqStuv 14] [ 15.BI \-d count 16] [ 17.BI \-m io | cpu 18] [ 19.BI \-o field 20] [ 21.BI \-s time 22] [ 23.BI \-U username 24] [ 25.I number 26] 27.SH DESCRIPTION 28.\" This defines appropriate quote strings for nroff and troff 29.ds lq \&" 30.ds rq \&" 31.if t .ds lq `` 32.if t .ds rq '' 33.\" Just in case these number registers aren't set yet... 34.if \nN==0 .nr N 10 35.if \nD==0 .nr D 2 36.I Top 37displays the top 38.if !\nN==-1 \nN 39processes on the system and periodically updates this information. 40.if \nN==-1 \ 41\{\ 42If standard output is an intelligent terminal (see below) then 43as many processes as will fit on the terminal screen are displayed 44by default. Otherwise, a good number of them are shown (around 20). 45.\} 46Raw cpu percentage is used to rank the processes. If 47.I number 48is given, then the top 49.I number 50processes will be displayed instead of the default. 51.PP 52.I Top 53makes a distinction between terminals that support advanced capabilities 54and those that do not. This 55distinction affects the choice of defaults for certain options. In the 56remainder of this document, an \*(lqintelligent\*(rq terminal is one that 57supports cursor addressing, clear screen, and clear to end of line. 58Conversely, a \*(lqdumb\*(rq terminal is one that does not support such 59features. If the output of 60.I top 61is redirected to a file, it acts as if it were being run on a dumb 62terminal. 63.SH OPTIONS 64.TP 65.B \-C 66Toggle CPU display mode. 67By default top displays the weighted CPU percentage in the WCPU column 68(this is the same value that 69.IR ps (1) 70displays as CPU). 71Each time 72.B \-C 73flag is passed it toggles between \*(lqraw cpu\*(rq mode 74and \*(lqweighted cpu\*(rq mode, showing the \*(lqCPU\*(rq or 75the \*(lqWCPU\*(rq column respectively. 76.TP 77.B \-S 78Show system processes in the display. Normally, system processes such as 79the pager and the swapper are not shown. This option makes them visible. 80.TP 81.B \-a 82Display command names derived from the argv[] vector, rather than real 83executable name. It's useful when you want to watch applications, that 84puts their status information there. If the real name differs from argv[0], 85it will be displayed in parenthesis. 86.TP 87.B \-b 88Use \*(lqbatch\*(rq mode. In this mode, all input from the terminal is 89ignored. Interrupt characters (such as ^C and ^\e) still have an effect. 90This is the default on a dumb terminal, or when the output is not a terminal. 91.TP 92.B \-i 93Use \*(lqinteractive\*(rq mode. In this mode, any input is immediately 94read for processing. See the section on \*(lqInteractive Mode\*(rq 95for an explanation of 96which keys perform what functions. After the command is processed, the 97screen will immediately be updated, even if the command was not 98understood. This mode is the default when standard output is an 99intelligent terminal. 100.TP 101.B \-I 102Do not display idle processes. 103By default, top displays both active and idle processes. 104.TP 105.B \-j 106Display the 107.IR jail (8) 108ID. 109.TP 110.B \-t 111Do not display the 112.I top 113process. 114.TP 115.BI \-m display 116Display either 'cpu' or 'io' statistics. Default is 'cpu'. 117.TP 118.B \-n 119Use \*(lqnon-interactive\*(rq mode. This is identical to \*(lqbatch\*(rq 120mode. 121.TP 122.B \-P 123Display per-cpu CPU usage statistics. 124.TP 125.B \-q 126Renice 127.I top 128to -20 so that it will run faster. This can be used when the system is 129being very sluggish to improve the possibility of discovering the problem. 130This option can only be used by root. 131.TP 132.B \-u 133Do not take the time to map uid numbers to usernames. Normally, 134.I top 135will read as much of the file \*(lq/etc/passwd\*(rq as is necessary to map 136all the user id numbers it encounters into login names. This option 137disables all that, while possibly decreasing execution time. The uid 138numbers are displayed instead of the names. 139.TP 140.B \-v 141Write version number information to stderr then exit immediately. 142No other processing takes place when this option is used. To see current 143revision information while top is running, use the help command \*(lq?\*(rq. 144.TP 145.BI \-d count 146Show only 147.I count 148displays, then exit. A display is considered to be one update of the 149screen. This option allows the user to select the number of displays he 150wants to see before 151.I top 152automatically exits. For intelligent terminals, no upper limit 153is set. The default is 1 for dumb terminals. 154.TP 155.BI \-s time 156Set the delay between screen updates to 157.I time 158seconds. The default delay between updates is \nD seconds. 159.TP 160.BI \-o field 161Sort the process display area on the specified field. The field name is 162the name of the column as seen in the output, but in lower case. Likely 163values are \*(lqcpu\*(rq, \*(lqsize\*(rq, \*(lqres\*(rq, and \*(lqtime\*(rq, 164but may vary on different operating systems. Note that 165not all operating systems support this option. 166.TP 167.BI \-U username 168Show only those processes owned by 169.IR username . 170This option currently only accepts usernames and will not understand 171uid numbers. 172.PP 173Both 174.I count 175and 176.I number 177fields can be specified as \*(lqinfinite\*(rq, indicating that they can 178stretch as far as possible. This is accomplished by using any proper 179prefix of the keywords 180\*(lqinfinity\*(rq, 181\*(lqmaximum\*(rq, 182or 183\*(lqall\*(rq. 184The default for 185.I count 186on an intelligent terminal is, in fact, 187.BI infinity . 188.PP 189The environment variable 190.B TOP 191is examined for options before the command line is scanned. This enables 192a user to set his or her own defaults. The number of processes to display 193can also be specified in the environment variable 194.BR TOP . 195The options 196.BR \-I , 197.BR \-S , 198.BR \-u , 199and 200.B \-t 201are actually toggles. A second specification of any of these options 202will negate the first. Thus a user who has the environment variable 203.B TOP 204set to \*(lq\-I\*(rq may use the command \*(lqtop \-I\*(rq to see idle processes. 205.SH "INTERACTIVE MODE" 206When 207.I top 208is running in \*(lqinteractive mode\*(rq, it reads commands from the 209terminal and acts upon them accordingly. In this mode, the terminal is 210put in \*(lqCBREAK\*(rq, so that a character will be 211processed as soon as it is typed. Almost always, a key will be 212pressed when 213.I top 214is between displays; that is, while it is waiting for 215.I time 216seconds to elapse. If this is the case, the command will be 217processed and the display will be updated immediately thereafter 218(reflecting any changes that the command may have specified). This 219happens even if the command was incorrect. If a key is pressed while 220.I top 221is in the middle of updating the display, it will finish the update and 222then process the command. Some commands require additional information, 223and the user will be prompted accordingly. While typing this information 224in, the user's erase and kill keys (as set up by the command 225.IR stty ) 226are recognized, and a newline terminates the input. 227.PP 228These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L): 229.TP 230.B ^L 231Redraw the screen. 232.IP "\fBh\fP\ or\ \fB?\fP" 233Display a summary of the commands (help screen). Version information 234is included in this display. 235.TP 236.B q 237Quit 238.IR top. 239.TP 240.B d 241Change the number of displays to show (prompt for new number). 242Remember that the next display counts as one, so typing 243.B d1 244will make 245.I top 246show one final display and then immediately exit. 247.TP 248.B m 249Toggle the display between 'cpu' and 'io' modes. 250.TP 251.B n or # 252Change the number of processes to display (prompt for new number). 253.TP 254.B s 255Change the number of seconds to delay between displays 256(prompt for new number). 257.TP 258.B S 259Toggle the display of system processes. 260.TP 261.B a 262Toggle the display of process titles. 263.TP 264.B k 265Send a signal (\*(lqkill\*(rq by default) to a list of processes. This 266acts similarly to the command 267.IR kill (1)). 268.TP 269.B r 270Change the priority (the \*(lqnice\*(rq) of a list of processes. 271This acts similarly to the command 272.IR renice (8)). 273.TP 274.B u 275Display only processes owned by a specific username (prompt for username). 276If the username specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq, then processes belonging 277to all users will be displayed. 278.TP 279.B o 280Change the order in which the display is sorted. This command is not 281available on all systems. The sort key names vary from system to system 282but usually include: \*(lqcpu\*(rq, \*(lqres\*(rq, \*(lqsize\*(rq, 283\*(lqtime\*(rq. The default is cpu. 284.TP 285.B e 286Display a list of system errors (if any) generated by the last 287.BR k ill 288or 289.BR r enice 290command. 291.TP 292.B i 293(or 294.BR I ) 295Toggle the display of idle processes. 296.TP 297.B j 298Toggle the display of 299.IR jail (8) 300ID. 301.TP 302.B t 303Toggle the display of the 304.I top 305process. 306.SH "THE DISPLAY" 307The actual display varies depending on the specific variant of Unix 308that the machine is running. This description may not exactly match 309what is seen by top running on this particular machine. Differences 310are listed at the end of this manual entry. 311.PP 312The top few lines of the display show general information 313about the state of the system, including 314the last process id assigned to a process (on most systems), 315the three load averages, 316the current time, 317the number of existing processes, 318the number of processes in each state 319(sleeping, running, starting, zombies, and stopped), 320and a percentage of time spent in each of the processor states 321(user, nice, system, and idle). 322It also includes information about physical and virtual memory allocation. 323.PP 324The remainder of the screen displays information about individual 325processes. This display is similar in spirit to 326.IR ps (1) 327but it is not exactly the same. PID is the process id, 328JID, when displayed, is the 329.IR jail (8) 330ID corresponding to the process, 331USERNAME is the name of the process's owner (if 332.B \-u 333is specified, a UID column will be substituted for USERNAME), 334PRI is the current priority of the process, 335NICE is the nice amount (in the range \-20 to 20), 336SIZE is the total size of the process (text, data, and stack), 337RES is the current amount of resident memory (both SIZE and RES are 338given in kilobytes), 339STATE is the current state (one of \*(lqSTART\*(rq, \*(lqRUN\*(rq 340(shown as \*(lqCPUn\*(rq on SMP systems), \*(lqSLEEP\*(rq, \*(lqSTOP\*(rq, 341\*(lqZOMB\*(rq, \*(lqWAIT\*(rq, \*(lqLOCK\*(rq or the event on which the 342process waits), 343C is the processor number on which the process is executing 344(visible only on SMP systems), 345TIME is the number of system and user cpu seconds that the process has used, 346WCPU, when displayed, is the weighted cpu percentage (this is the same 347value that 348.IR ps (1) 349displays as CPU), 350CPU is the raw percentage and is the field that is sorted to determine 351the order of the processes, and 352COMMAND is the name of the command that the process is currently running 353(if the process is swapped out, this column is marked \*(lq<swapped>\*(rq). 354.SH NOTES 355The \*(lqABANDONED\*(rq state (known in the kernel as \*(lqSWAIT\*(rq) was 356abandoned, thus the name. A process should never end up in this state. 357.SH AUTHOR 358William LeFebvre, EECS Department, Northwestern University 359.SH ENVIRONMENT 360.DT 361TOP user-configurable defaults for options. 362.SH FILES 363.DT 364/dev/kmem kernel memory 365.br 366/dev/mem physical memory 367.br 368/etc/passwd used to map uid numbers to user names 369.br 370/boot/kernel/kernel system image 371.SH BUGS 372Don't shoot me, but the default for 373.B \-I 374has changed once again. So many people were confused by the fact that 375.I top 376wasn't showing them all the processes that I have decided to make the 377default behavior show idle processes, just like it did in version 2. 378But to appease folks who can't stand that behavior, I have added the 379ability to set \*(lqdefault\*(rq options in the environment variable 380.B TOP 381(see the OPTIONS section). Those who want the behavior that version 3823.0 had need only set the environment variable 383.B TOP 384to \*(lq\-I\*(rq. 385.PP 386The command name for swapped processes should be tracked down, but this 387would make the program run slower. 388.PP 389As with 390.IR ps (1), 391things can change while 392.I top 393is collecting information for an update. The picture it gives is only a 394close approximation to reality. 395.SH "SEE ALSO" 396kill(1), 397ps(1), 398stty(1), 399mem(4), 400renice(8) 401