top#

top is a real time processes and threads monitor which lists basic information about currently active processes.


top may be seen as ps command which updates itself with a given rate. Execution of top applet may be controlled with command-line arguments and further with interactive commands when being

When top is run with -h argument the help message is displayed as follows:

Command-line arguments
  -h:  prints help
  -H:  starts with threads mode
  -d:  sets refresh rate (integer greater than 0)
  -n:  sets number of iterations (by default its infinity)

Interactive commands:
   <ENTER> or <SPACE>:  refresh
   H:  toggle threads mode
   q:  quit
   P:  sort by CPU
   M:  sort by MEM
   T:  sort by TIME
   N:  sort by PID
   R:  reverse sorting

If sole:

top

Is run it presents the user with a live monitor of processes sorted by %CPU usage. The monitor is structured in columns with headers. Each row represents a process.

Column headers are:

  • PID - process ID,

  • PPID - parent process ID,

  • PR - priority,

  • STATE - state of process,

  • %CPU - CPU usage of process,

  • WAIT - wait for processor time,

  • TIME - age of process,

  • VMEM - memory used,

  • CMD - command that started that process,

See also#

  1. Phoenix-RTOS shell

  2. Phoenix-RTOS Utilities

  3. Table of Contents