top.X revision 24139
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.nr N %topn% 4.nr D %delay% 5.TH TOP 1 Local 6.UC 4 7.SH NAME 8top \- display and update information about the top cpu processes 9.SH SYNOPSIS 10.B top 11[ 12.B \-SbiInqu 13] [ 14.BI \-d count 15] [ 16.BI \-s time 17] [ 18.BI \-o field 19] [ 20.BI \-U username 21] [ 22.I number 23] 24.SH DESCRIPTION 25.\" This defines appropriate quote strings for nroff and troff 26.ds lq \&" 27.ds rq \&" 28.if t .ds lq `` 29.if t .ds rq '' 30.\" Just in case these number registers aren't set yet... 31.if \nN==0 .nr N 10 32.if \nD==0 .nr D 5 33.I Top 34displays the top 35.if !\nN==-1 \nN 36processes on the system and periodically updates this information. 37.if \nN==-1 \ 38\{\ 39If standard output is an intelligent terminal (see below) then 40as many processes as will fit on the terminal screen are displayed 41by default. Otherwise, a good number of them are shown (around 20). 42.\} 43Raw cpu percentage is used to rank the processes. If 44.I number 45is given, then the top 46.I number 47processes will be displayed instead of the default. 48.PP 49.I Top 50makes a distinction between terminals that support advanced capabilities 51and those that do not. This 52distinction affects the choice of defaults for certain options. In the 53remainder of this document, an \*(lqintelligent\*(rq terminal is one that 54supports cursor addressing, clear screen, and clear to end of line. 55Conversely, a \*(lqdumb\*(rq terminal is one that does not support such 56features. If the output of 57.I top 58is redirected to a file, it acts as if it were being run on a dumb 59terminal. 60.SH OPTIONS 61.TP 62.B \-S 63Show system processes in the display. Normally, system processes such as 64the pager and the swapper are not shown. This option makes them visible. 65.TP 66.B \-b 67Use \*(lqbatch\*(rq mode. In this mode, all input from the terminal is 68ignored. Interrupt characters (such as ^C and ^\e) still have an effect. 69This is the default on a dumb terminal, or when the output is not a terminal. 70.TP 71.B \-i 72Use \*(lqinteractive\*(rq mode. In this mode, any input is immediately 73read for processing. See the section on \*(lqInteractive Mode\*(rq 74for an explanation of 75which keys perform what functions. After the command is processed, the 76screen will immediately be updated, even if the command was not 77understood. This mode is the default when standard output is an 78intelligent terminal. 79.TP 80.B \-I 81Do not display idle processes. 82By default, top displays both active and idle processes. 83.TP 84.B \-n 85Use \*(lqnon-interactive\*(rq mode. This is indentical to \*(lqbatch\*(rq 86mode. 87.TP 88.B \-q 89Renice 90.I top 91to -20 so that it will run faster. This can be used when the system is 92being very sluggish to improve the possibility of discovering the problem. 93This option can only be used by root. 94.TP 95.B \-u 96Do not take the time to map uid numbers to usernames. Normally, 97.I top 98will read as much of the file \*(lq/etc/passwd\*(rq as is necessary to map 99all the user id numbers it encounters into login names. This option 100disables all that, while possibly decreasing execution time. The uid 101numbers are displayed instead of the names. 102.TP 103.BI \-d count 104Show only 105.I count 106displays, then exit. A display is considered to be one update of the 107screen. This option allows the user to select the number of displays he 108wants to see before 109.I top 110automatically exits. For intelligent terminals, no upper limit 111is set. The default is 1 for dumb terminals. 112.TP 113.BI \-s time 114Set the delay between screen updates to 115.I time 116seconds. The default delay between updates is \nD seconds. 117.TP 118.BI \-o field 119Sort the process display area on the specified field. The field name is 120the name of the column as seen in the output, but in lower case. Likely 121values are \*(lqcpu\*(rq, \*(lqsize\*(rq, \*(lqres\*(rq, and \*(lqtime\*(rq, 122but may vary on different operating systems. Note that 123not all operating systems support this option. 124.TP 125.BI \-U username 126Show only those processes owned by 127.IR username . 128This option currently only accepts usernames and will not understand 129uid numbers. 130.PP 131Both 132.I count 133and 134.I number 135fields can be specified as \*(lqinfinite\*(rq, indicating that they can 136stretch as far as possible. This is accomplished by using any proper 137prefix of the keywords 138\*(lqinfinity\*(rq, 139\*(lqmaximum\*(rq, 140or 141\*(lqall\*(rq. 142The default for 143.I count 144on an intelligent terminal is, in fact, 145.BI infinity . 146.PP 147The environment variable 148.B TOP 149is examined for options before the command line is scanned. This enables 150a user to set his or her own defaults. The number of processes to display 151can also be specified in the environment variable 152.BR TOP . 153The options 154.BR \-I , 155.BR \-S , 156and 157.B \-u 158are actually toggles. A second specification of any of these options 159will negate the first. Thus a user who has the environment variable 160.B TOP 161set to \*(lq\-I\*(rq may use the command \*(lqtop \-I\*(rq to see idle processes. 162.SH "INTERACTIVE MODE" 163When 164.I top 165is running in \*(lqinteractive mode\*(rq, it reads commands from the 166terminal and acts upon them accordingly. In this mode, the terminal is 167put in \*(lqCBREAK\*(rq, so that a character will be 168processed as soon as it is typed. Almost always, a key will be 169pressed when 170.I top 171is between displays; that is, while it is waiting for 172.I time 173seconds to elapse. If this is the case, the command will be 174processed and the display will be updated immediately thereafter 175(reflecting any changes that the command may have specified). This 176happens even if the command was incorrect. If a key is pressed while 177.I top 178is in the middle of updating the display, it will finish the update and 179then process the command. Some commands require additional information, 180and the user will be prompted accordingly. While typing this information 181in, the user's erase and kill keys (as set up by the command 182.IR stty ) 183are recognized, and a newline terminates the input. 184.PP 185These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L): 186.TP 187.B ^L 188Redraw the screen. 189.IP "\fBh\fP\ or\ \fB?\fP" 190Display a summary of the commands (help screen). 191.TP 192.B q 193Quit 194.IR top. 195.TP 196.B d 197Change the number of displays to show (prompt for new number). 198Remember that the next display counts as one, so typing 199.B d1 200will make 201.I top 202show one final display and then immediately exit. 203.TP 204.B n or # 205Change the number of processes to display (prompt for new number). 206.TP 207.B s 208Change the number of seconds to delay between displays 209(prompt for new number). 210.TP 211.B k 212Send a signal (\*(lqkill\*(rq by default) to a list of processes. This 213acts similarly to the command 214.IR kill (1)). 215.TP 216.B r 217Change the priority (the \*(lqnice\*(rq) of a list of processes. 218This acts similarly to the command 219.IR renice (8)). 220.TP 221.B u 222Display only processes owned by a specific username (prompt for username). 223If the username specified is simply \*(lq+\*(rq, then processes belonging 224to all users will be displayed. 225.TP 226.B e 227Display a list of system errors (if any) generated by the last 228.BR k ill 229or 230.BR r enice 231command. 232.TP 233.B i 234(or 235.BR I) 236Toggle the display of idle processes. 237.SH "THE DISPLAY" 238The actual display varies depending on the specific variant of Unix 239that the machine is running. This description may not exactly match 240what is seen by top running on this particular machine. Differences 241are listed at the end of this manual entry. 242.PP 243The top few lines of the display show general information 244about the state of the system, including 245the last process id assigned to a process (on most systems), 246the three load averages, 247the current time, 248the number of existing processes, 249the number of processes in each state 250(sleeping, running, starting, zombies, and stopped), 251and a percentage of time spent in each of the processor states 252(user, nice, system, and idle). 253It also includes information about physial and virtual memory allocation. 254.PP 255The remainder of the screen displays information about individual 256processes. This display is similar in spirit to 257.IR ps (1) 258but it is not exactly the same. PID is the process id, USERNAME is the name 259of the process's owner (if 260.B \-u 261is specified, a UID column will be substituted for USERNAME), 262PRI is the current priority of the process, 263NICE is the nice amount (in the range \-20 to 20), 264SIZE is the total size of the process (text, data, and stack), 265RES is the current amount of resident memory (both SIZE and RES are 266given in kilobytes), 267STATE is the current state (one of \*(lqsleep\*(rq, \*(lqWAIT\*(rq, 268\*(lqrun\*(rq, \*(lqidl\*(rq, \*(lqzomb\*(rq, or \*(lqstop\*(rq), 269TIME is the number of system and user cpu seconds that the process has used, 270WCPU, when displayed, is the weighted cpu percentage (this is the same 271value that 272.IR ps (1) 273displays as CPU), 274CPU is the raw percentage and is the field that is sorted to determine 275the order of the processes, and 276COMMAND is the name of the command that the process is currently running 277(if the process is swapped out, this column is marked \*(lq<swapped>\*(rq). 278.SH NOTES 279The \*(lqABANDONED\*(rq state (known in the kernel as \*(lqSWAIT\*(rq) was 280abandoned, thus the name. A process should never end up in this state. 281.SH AUTHOR 282William LeFebvre, EECS Department, Northwestern University 283.SH ENVIRONMENT 284.DT 285TOP user-configurable defaults for options. 286.SH FILES 287.DT 288/dev/kmem kernel memory 289.br 290/dev/mem physical memory 291.br 292/etc/passwd used to map uid numbers to user names 293.br 294/vmunix system image 295.SH BUGS 296Don't shoot me, but the default for 297.B \-I 298has changed once again. So many people were confused by the fact that 299.I top 300wasn't showing them all the processes that I have decided to make the 301default behavior show idle processes, just like it did in version 2. 302But to appease folks who can't stand that behavior, I have added the 303ability to set \*(lqdefault\*(rq options in the environment variable 304.B TOP 305(see the OPTIONS section). Those who want the behavior that version 3063.0 had need only set the environment variable 307.B TOP 308to \*(lq\-I\*(rq. 309.PP 310The command name for swapped processes should be tracked down, but this 311would make the program run slower. 312.PP 313As with 314.IR ps (1), 315things can change while 316.I top 317is collecting information for an update. The picture it gives is only a 318close approximation to reality. 319.SH "SEE ALSO" 320kill(1), 321ps(1), 322stty(1), 323mem(4), 324renice(8) 325