How do you read the top command?

How does the top command work?

The top (table of processes) command shows a real-time view of running processes in Linux and displays kernel-managed tasks. The command also provides a system information summary that shows resource utilization, including CPU and memory usage. In this tutorial, you will learn to use the top command in Linux.

What is in top command?

The top command is used for memory monitoring. It works only on Linux platform. The top command produces an ordered list of running processes selected by user-specified criteria, and updates it periodically. By default, ordering is by CPU usage, and it shows processes that consume maximum CPU.

How do you read the top memory?

Viewing memory usage in top Hit Shift+M to see the list sorted by memory usage. Your display may look slightly different than this example from a running Fedora Workstation: There are three columns showing memory usage to examine: VIRT, RES, and SHR.

How do you show the full command at the top?

Pressing “c” toggles the COMMAND column between displaying the process name and the full command line.