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TOP(1)									TOP(1)

NAME
       top - display and update information about the top cpu processes

SYNOPSIS
       top [ -Sbinu ] [ -dcount ] [ -stime ] [ number ]

DESCRIPTION
       Top  displays  the top processes on the system and periodically updates
       this information.  If standard output is an intelligent	terminal  (see
       below)  then  as	 many processes as will fit on the terminal screen are
       displayed by default.  Otherwise, a  good  number  of  them  are	 shown
       (around	20).   Raw  cpu	 percentage is used to rank the processes.  If
       number is given, then  the  top	number	processes  will	 be  displayed
       instead of the default.

       Top  makes  a distinction between terminals that support advanced capa‐
       bilities and those that do not.	This distinction affects the choice of
       defaults	 for  certain  options.	 In the remainder of this document, an
       "intelligent" terminal is one that supports  cursor  addressing,	 clear
       screen, and clear to end of line.  Conversely, a "dumb" terminal is one
       that does not support such features.  If the output  of	top  is	 redi‐
       rected to a file, it acts as if it were being run on a dumb terminal.

OPTIONS
       -S     Show  system  processes  in  the display.	 Normally, system pro‐
	      cesses such as the pager and the swapper are  not	 shown.	  This
	      option makes them visible.

       -b     Use  "batch" mode.  In this mode, all input from the terminal is
	      ignored.	Interrupt characters (such as ^C and ^\) still have an
	      effect.	This  is  the  default on a dumb terminal, or when the
	      output is not a terminal.

       -i     Use "interactive" mode.  In this mode, any input is  immediately
	      read  for processing.  See the section on "Interactive Mode" for
	      an explanation of which keys perform what functions.  After  the
	      command  is  processed,  the screen will immediately be updated,
	      even if the command  was	not  understood.   This	 mode  is  the
	      default when standard output is an intelligent terminal.

       -n     Use "non-interactive" mode.  This is indentical to "batch" mode.

       -u     Do not take the time to map uid numbers to usernames.  Normally,
	      top will read as much of the file "/etc/passwd" as is  necessary
	      to  map  all the user id numbers it encounters into login names.
	      This option disables all that, while possibly decreasing	execu‐
	      tion time.  The uid numbers are displayed instead of the names.

       -dcount
	      Show only count displays, then exit.  A display is considered to
	      be one update of the screen.  This option	 allows	 the  user  to
	      select  the  number of displays he wants to see before top auto‐
	      matically exits.	For intelligent terminals, no upper  limit  is
	      set.  The default is 1 for dumb terminals.

       -stime Set  the	delay  between	screen	updates	 to time seconds.  The
	      default delay between updates is 5 seconds.

       Both count and number fields can be specified as "infinite", indicating
       that  they  can	stretch	 as  far as possible.  This is accomplished by
       using any proper prefix	of  the	 keywords  "infinity",	"maximum",  or
       "all".	The  default for count on an intelligent terminal is, in fact,
       infinity.

INTERACTIVE MODE
       When top is running in "interactive mode", it reads commands  from  the
       terminal and acts upon them accordingly.	 In this mode, the terminal is
       put in "CBREAK", so that a character will be processed as soon as it is
       typed.	Almost	always, a key will be pressed when top is between dis‐
       plays; that is, while it is waiting for time  seconds  to  elapse.   If
       this is the case, the command will be processed and the display will be
       updated immediately thereafter (reflecting any changes that the command
       may  have  specified).  This happens even if the command was incorrect.
       If a key is pressed while top is in the middle of updating the display,
       it  will finish the update and then process the command.	 Some commands
       require additional information, and the user will be  prompted  accord‐
       ingly.	While  typing  this  information in, the user's erase and kill
       keys (as set up by the command stty) are recognized, and a newline ter‐
       minates the input.

       These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L):

       ^L     Redraw the screen.

       h or ? Display a summary of the commands (help screen).

       q      Quit top.

       d      Change  the  number of displays to show (prompt for new number).
	      Remember that the next display counts as one, so typing d1  will
	      make top show one final display and then immediately exit.

       n or # Change  the  number of processes to display (prompt for new num‐
	      ber).

       s      Change the number of seconds to delay between  displays  (prompt
	      for new number).

       k      Send  a signal ("kill" by default) to a list of processes.  This
	      acts similarly to the command kill(1)).

       r      Change the priority (the "nice") of a list of  processes.	  This
	      acts similarly to the command renice(8)).

       e      Display  a  list of system errors (if any) generated by the last
	      kill or renice command.

THE DISPLAY
       The top few lines of the display show  general  information  about  the
       state  of  the  system,	including  the	last  process id assigned to a
       process, the three load averages,  the  current	time,  the  number  of
       existing	 processes,  the  number of processes in each state (sleeping,
       ABANDONED, running, starting, zombies, and stopped), and	 a  percentage
       of  time spent in each of the processor states (user, nice, system, and
       idle).  It also includes the amount of virtual and real memory  in  use
       (with  the amount of memory considered "active" in parentheses) and the
       amount of free memory.

       The remainder of the screen displays information about individual  pro‐
       cesses.	 This  display	is  similar  in	 spirit to ps(1) but it is not
       exactly the same.  PID is the process id, USERNAME is the name  of  the
       process's  owner	 (if -u is specified, a UID column will be substituted
       for USERNAME), PRI is the current priority of the process, NICE is  the
       nice  amount  (in  the  range -20 to 20), SIZE is the total size of the
       process (text, data, and stack), RES is the current amount of  resident
       memory (both SIZE and RES are given in kilobytes), STATE is the current
       state (one of "sleep", "WAIT", "run", "idl", "zomb", or	"stop"),  TIME
       is the number of system and user cpu seconds that the process has used,
       WCPU is the weighted cpu percentage (this is the same value that	 ps(1)
       displays	 as  CPU),  CPU is the raw percentage and is the field that is
       sorted to determine the order of the processes, and COMMAND is the name
       of the command that the process is currently running (if the process is
       swapped out, this column is marked "<swapped>").

NOTES
       The "ABANDONED" state (known in the kernel as "SWAIT")  was  abandoned,
       thus the name.  A process should never end up in this state.

AUTHOR
       William LeFebvre, Rice University graduate student

FILES
       /dev/kmem      kernel memory
       /dev/mem	      physical memory
       /etc/passwd	   used to map uid numbers to user names
       /vmunix	      system image

BUGS
       The command name for swapped processes should be tracked down, but this
       would make the program run slower.

       As with ps(1), things can change while top  is  collecting  information
       for  an	update.	 The picture it gives is only a close approximation to
       reality.

SEE ALSO
       kill(1), ps(1), stty(1), mem(4), renice(8)

4th Berkeley Distribution	     Local				TOP(1)
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