Top top Tips
That is to say, some top tips for the command-line program top. Top is a program to show you the top processes consuming resources on the system. You can then press other keys and the program will respond. For example:
q to quit
z to get a colour output
x to highlight which field the results are sorted by
< and > to change which field it is sorted by
c to tooggle between the program name and the full command that was run
I don’t use every program often enough to just remember the keyboard shortcuts so its nice to keep a virtual crib sheet :)
Htop is nice as well.
http://htop.sourceforge.net/
Main use of top for me is to find runaway processes, so I tend press ‘M’ or ‘P’ to sort by memory or CPU usage respectively. I’m in the habit of using ctrl-c to quit, since that’s generic in unix apps. TMTOWTDI!
Simon: that’s a new one for me – but good call, I will certainly take a look at it.
Geoff: There’s more than one way to do it, indeed.