Suraj Kumar Platform & DevOps

Reading a Linux System with top, htop and bashtop

Three interactive process monitors, what each one is good for, and the keys worth remembering — sorting by memory, killing a process without hunting for its PID, and seeing disk and network at a glance.

1 min read
  • linux
  • monitoring
turned on monitoring screen
Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash

A guide to interactive system monitoring with top, htop and bashtop — taking control of your system’s health and performance.

Getting started

Before diving in, make sure you have the tools installed. Most Linux distributions ship top already; htop and bashtop are worth adding for a more interactive experience.

Install htop:

sudo apt-get install htop # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install htop     # CentOS/RHEL
sudo dnf install htop     # Fedora

Install bashtop:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bashtop-monitor/bashtop
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bashtop

top — the classic

top is the granddaddy of system monitoring tools. It gives you a dynamic, real-time view of a running system.

top

Navigating within top:

  • Shift + M — sort by memory usage
  • Shift + P — sort by CPU usage
  • h — show help

htop — the enhanced version

htop is top with more features: a colourful interface, easier navigation, and the ability to kill a process without first looking up its PID.

htop

Key features:

  • Use the arrow keys to navigate.
  • Press F9 to kill a process.
  • Press F2 for setup.

bashtop — the eye candy

bashtop is a resource monitor showing usage and statistics for processor, memory, disks, network and processes. It is the most visually appealing of the three.

bashtop

Highlights:

  • Easy to use, with an almost game-like interface.
  • Detailed process sorting, including by CPU and memory.
  • A responsive UI with mouse support.

Others worth mentioning

  • Glances — an all-in-one system monitoring tool.
  • nmon — performance monitoring for Linux.
  • atop — for Linux server performance analysis.

Conclusion

Monitoring is how you keep a system healthy and find out where its performance actually goes. Between top, htop and bashtop you are well equipped to understand and manage what your machine is doing.