System monitoring allows you to measure the performance of your Linux applications and services.
With these programs, you’re able to optimize performance, spot problems, and identify their source.
The htop command is an interactive system-monitoring tool for Linux and Unix-like systems.
It’s an alternative to the default command-line tool,top,that comes pre-installed on all Linux distributions.
This article explains how htop is different from the top utility.
You’ll see how to install htop on various Linux distributions or build it from the source.
htop vs. top
htop has many benefits over the default top program.
htop uses the ncurses library which you’ll need to install, along with its development tools.
This is a cross-distribution software management and development system.
Let’s explore the information displayed in each panel.
The Header
The header splits the top of the interface into left and right sections.
These display the CPU/memory usage, swap space, the machine uptime, tasks, and average load.
The top-left section shows one line for each CPU core.
For instance, the above screenshot displays two CPU cores, with the percentage representing the load on each.
The Footer
The last panel demonstrates just a few of htop’s interactive features.
It contains all the necessary options to work around the htop graphical interface.
you might also use your mouse to click onF3in the footer.
Another way to perform a search is to throw in ‘/’ since htop supports vi-like editing.
Select any from theAvailable meterscolumn and click onAddto include it (orDoneto cancel).
Use the default SIGTERM signal if you are unsure which to use.
System monitoring with a keyboard-only, monochromatic interface can be a daunting task.
htop provides many features to ease the task of dealing with processes and their resource use.
But there are plenty of other tools which allow you to investigate how your system is running.
