Htop： a powerful process monitoring tool for Linux

Htop is a powerful process monitoring tool for Linux that provides real-time system statistics as well as a way to manage and manipulate running processes.

Some of the useful features of htop include:

1. Displaying system statistics: Htop displays CPU and memory usage, load average, and other system statistics in real-time. It also displays information about individual processes, such as their PID, user, CPU and memory usage, and more.
2. Sorting processes: Htop allows you to sort processes by various criteria, such as CPU or memory usage, process age, or process name.
3. Killing processes: Htop allows you to send various signals to running processes, such as SIGTERM or SIGKILL, to terminate or kill them.
4. Customizing display: Htop offers several customization options, such as hiding user or kernel threads, changing the process display format, or applying various color schemes.

Here are some examples of how to use htop:

1. Sorting processes by CPU usage: Press F6, then select %CPU to sort processes by CPU usage, from highest to lowest.
2. Killing a process: Select the process you want to kill using the arrow keys, then press F9 and select the signal you want to send to the process, such as SIGTERM or SIGKILL.
3. Customizing display: Press F2 to access the setup menu, then select Display options to customize various display settings, such as hiding user threads or changing the process tree view.

To install htop on Linux

To install htop on Linux, you can use the package manager for your distribution. For example, on Ubuntu, you can run:

sudo apt-get install htop

On Fedora, you can run:

sudo dnf install htop

On CentOS, you can run:

sudo yum install htop

On Arch Linux, you can run:

sudo pacman -S htop

After installation, you can run htop by simply typing htop in a terminal.

To uninstall htop on Linux

To uninstall htop on Linux, you can use the package manager for your distribution. For example, on Ubuntu, you can run:

sudo apt-get remove htop

On Fedora, you can run:

sudo dnf remove htop

On CentOS, you can run:

sudo yum remove htop

On Arch Linux, you can run:

sudo pacman -Rs htop

After running the appropriate command for your distribution, the htop package and its dependencies will be removed from your system.

There are many system monitoring tools available for Linux that offer similar functionality to htop

There are many system monitoring tools available for Linux that offer similar functionality to htop. Here are a few popular alternatives:

1. top: This is the classic Linux process monitor that provides similar information to htop, but lacks some of the advanced features of htop.
2. glances: A cross-platform system monitoring tool that provides real-time statistics on CPU, memory, network, disk I/O, and more.
3. atop: A more advanced process monitor that provides detailed information on system activity over time, including process CPU and memory usage.
4. nmon: A system monitor that displays performance data in real-time, with detailed reports on CPU, memory, network, disk I/O, and more.
5. psacct: A process monitor that logs all system activity, allowing you to analyze usage patterns over time.
6. systemd-cgtop: A process monitor that shows resource usage for systemd control groups on Linux.

These are just a few examples of htop alternatives, and there are many more available. It’s worth experimenting with different tools to find the one that best meets your needs.