HTOP(1) User Commands

HTOP(1)

NAME
htop, pcp-htop - interactive process viewer

SYNOPSIS
htop [-dCFhpustvH]
pcp htop [-dCFhpustvH] [--host/-h host]

DESCRIPTION
htop is a cross-platform ncurses-based process viewer.

It is similar to top, but allows you to scroll vertically and horizontally,

and interact us‐
ing a pointing device (mouse). You can observe all processes running on the
system, along
with their command line arguments, as well as view them in a tree format,
select multiple
processes and act on them all at once.

Tasks related to processes (killing, renicing) can be done without entering

their PIDs.

pcp-htop is a version of htop built using the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)

Metrics API (see
PCPIntro(1), PMAPI(3)), allowing to extend htop to display values from
arbitrary metrics.
See the section below titled CONFIG FILES for further details.

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-d --delay=DELAY
Delay between updates, in tenths of a second. If the delay value is
less than 1, it
is increased to 1, i.e. 1/10 second. If the delay value is greater
than 100, it is
decreased to 100, i.e. 10 seconds.

-C --no-color --no-colour
Start htop in monochrome mode

-F --filter=FILTER
Filter processes by terms matching the commands. The terms are
matched case-insensi‐
tive and as fixed strings (not regexs). You can separate multiple
terms with "|".

-h --help
Display a help message and exit

-p --pid=PID,PID...
Show only the given PIDs

-s --sort-key COLUMN
Sort by this column (use --sort-key help for a column list). This
will force a list
view unless you specify -t at the same time.
 -u --user=USERNAME|UID
Show only the processes of a given user

-U --no-unicode
Do not use unicode but ASCII characters for graph meters

-M --no-mouse
Disable support of mouse control

--readonly
Disable all system and process changing features

-V --version
Output version information and exit

-t --tree
Show processes in tree view. This can be used to force a tree view
when requesting a
sort order with -s.

-H --highlight-changes=DELAY
Highlight new and old processes

--drop-capabilities[=off|basic|strict]
Linux only; requires libcap support.
Drop unneeded Linux capabilities. In strict mode features like
killing, changing
process priorities, and reading process delay accounting information
will not work,
due to less capabilities held.

INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
The following commands are supported while in htop:

Tab, Shift-Tab
Select the next / the previous screen tab to display. You can
enable showing the
screen tab names in the Setup screen (F2).

Up, Alt-k
Select (highlight) the previous process in the process list. Scroll the
list if neces‐
sary.

Down, Alt-j
Select (highlight) the next process in the process list. Scroll the
list if necessary.

Left, Alt-h
Scroll the process list left.

Right, Alt-l
Scroll the process list right.

PgUp, PgDn
Scroll the process list up or down one window.

Home Scroll to the top of the process list and select the first process.
 End Scroll to the bottom of the process list and select the last process.

Ctrl-A, ^
Scroll left to the beginning of the process entry (i.e. beginning of
line).

Ctrl-E, $
Scroll right to the end of the process entry (i.e. end of line).

Space
Tag or untag a process. Commands that can operate on multiple
processes, like "kill",
will then apply over the list of tagged processes, instead of the
currently highlighted
one.

c Tag the current process and its children. Commands that can operate
on multiple pro‐
cesses, like "kill", will then apply over the list of tagged processes,
instead of the
currently highlighted one.

U Untag all processes (remove all tags added with the Space or c keys).

s Trace process system calls: if strace(1) is installed, pressing this

key will attach it
to the currently selected process, presenting a live update of system
calls issued by
the process.

l Display open files for a process: if lsof(1) is installed, pressing

this key will dis‐
play the list of file descriptors opened by the process.

w Display the command line of the selected process in a separate

screen, wrapped onto
multiple lines as needed.

x Display the active file locks of the selected process in a separate

screen.

F1, h, ?
Go to the help screen

F2, S
Go to the setup screen, where you can configure the meters displayed
at the top of the
screen, set various display options, choose among color schemes, and
select which col‐
umns are displayed, in which order.

F3, /
Incrementally search the command lines of all the displayed
processes. The currently
selected (highlighted) command will update as you type. While in search
mode, pressing
F3 will cycle through matching occurrences. Pressing Shift-F3 will
cycle backwards.
 Alternatively the search can be started by simply typing the command
you are looking
for, although for the first character normal key bindings take
precedence.

F4, \
Incremental process filtering: type in part of a process command line
and onlypro‐
cesses whose names match will be shown. To cancel filtering, enter
the Filter option
again and press Esc. The matching is done case-insensitive. Terms are
fixed strings
(no regex). You can separate multiple terms with "|".

F5, t
Tree view: organize processes by parenthood, and layout the relations
between them as a
tree. Toggling the key will switch between tree and your previously
selected sort view.
Selecting a sort view will exit tree view.

F6, <, >

Selects a field for sorting, also accessible through < and >. The
current sort field
is indicated by a highlight in the header.

F7, ]
Increase the selected process's priority (subtract from 'nice' value).
This can only
be done by the superuser.

F8, [
Decrease the selected process's priority (add to 'nice' value)

Shift-F7, }
Increase the selected process's autogroup priority (subtract from
autogroup 'nice'
value). This can only be done by the superuser.

Shift-F8, {
Decrease the selected process's autogroup priority (add to autogroup
'nice' value)

F9, k
"Kill" process: sends a signal which is selected in a menu, to one or a
group of
pro‐
cesses. If processes were tagged, sends the signal to all tagged
processes. If none is
tagged, sends to the currently selected process.

F10, q
Quit

I Invert the sort order: if sort order is increasing, switch to

decreasing, and vice-
versa.

+, -, *
 When in tree view mode, expand or collapse subtree. When a subtree is
collapsed a "+"
sign shows to the left of the process name. Pressing "*" will expand
or collapse all
children of PIDs without parents, so typically PID 1 (init) and
PID 2 (kthreadd on
Linux, if kernel threads are shown).

a (on multiprocessor machines)

Set CPU affinity: mark which CPUs a process is allowed to use.

u Show only processes owned by a specified user.

N Sort by PID.

M Sort by memory usage (top compatibility key).

P Sort by processor usage (top compatibility key).

T Sort by time (top compatibility key).

F "Follow" process: if the sort order causes the currently selected

process tomove in
the list, make the selection bar follow it. This is useful for
monitoring a process:
this way, you can keep a process always visible on screen. When a
movement key is used,
"follow" loses effect.

K Hide kernel threads: prevent the threads belonging the kernel to be

displayed in the
process list. (This is a toggle key.)

H Hide user threads: on systems that represent them differently than

ordinary processes
(such as recent NPTL-based systems), this can hide threads from
userspace processes in
the process list. (This is a toggle key.)

O Hide containerized processes: prevent processes running in a container

from being dis‐
played in the process list. (This is a toggle key.)

p Show full paths to running programs, where applicable. (This is a

toggle key.)

Z Pause/resume process updates.

m Merge exe, comm and cmdline, where applicable. (This is a toggle key.)

Ctrl-L
Refresh: redraw screen and recalculate values.

Numbers
PID search: type in process ID and the selection highlight will be
moved to it.

COLUMNS
The following columns can display data about each process. A value of '-'
in all the rows
indicates that a column is unsupported on your system, or currently
unimplemented in htop.
The names below are the ones used in the "Available Columns" section of the
setup screen. If
a different name is shown in htop's main screen, it is shown below in
parenthesis.

Command
The full command line of the process (i.e. program name and arguments).

If the option 'Merge exe, comm and cmdline in Command' (toggled by the
'm' key) is ac‐
tive, the executable path (/proc/[pid]/exe) and the command name
(/proc/[pid]/comm) are
also shown merged with the command line, if available.

The program basename is highlighted if set in the configuration.

Additional highlight‐
ing can be configured for stale executables (cf. EXE column below).

COMM The command name of the process obtained from /proc/[pid]/comm, if

readable.

Requires Linux kernel 2.6.33 or newer.

EXE The abbreviated basename of the executable of the process,

obtained from
/proc/[pid]/exe, if readable. htop is able to read this file on linux
for ALL the pro‐
cesses only if it has the capability CAP_SYS_PTRACE or root privileges.

The basename is marked in red if the executable used to run the

process has been re‐
placed or deleted on disk since the process started. The information
is obtained by
processing the contents of /proc/[pid]/exe.

Furthermore the basename is marked in yellow if any library is

reported as having been
replaced or deleted on disk since it was last loaded. The information
is obtained by
processing the contents of /proc/[pid]/maps.

When deciding the color the replacement of the main executable always
takes precedence
over replacement of any other library. If only the memory map indicates
a replacement
of the main executable, this will show as if any other library had
been replaced or
deleted.

This additional color markup can be configured in the "Display Options"

section of the
setup screen.

Displaying EXE requires CAP_SYS_PTRACE and PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCRED.

PID The process ID.

 STATE (S)
The state of the process:
S for sleeping
I for idle (longer inactivity than sleeping on platforms that
distinguish)
R for running
D for disk sleep (uninterruptible)
Z for zombie (waiting for parent to read its exit status)
T for traced or suspended (e.g by SIGTSTP)
W for paging

PPID The parent process ID.

PGRP The process's group ID.

SESSION (SID)
The process's session ID.

TTY The controlling terminal of the process.

TPGID
The process ID of the foreground process group of the controlling
terminal.

MINFLT
The number of page faults happening in the main memory.

CMINFLT
The number of minor faults for the process's waited-for children (see
MINFLT above).

MAJFLT
The number of page faults happening out of the main memory.

CMAJFLT
The number of major faults for the process's waited-for children (see
MAJFLT above).

UTIME (UTIME+)
The user CPU time, which is the amount of time the process has spent
executing on the
CPU in user mode (i.e. everything but system calls), measured in clock
ticks.

STIME (STIME+)
The system CPU time, which is the amount of time the kernel has spent
executing system
calls on behalf of the process, measured in clock ticks.

CUTIME (CUTIME+)
The children's user CPU time, which is the amount of time the
process's waited-for
children have spent executing in user mode (see UTIME above).

CSTIME (CSTIME+)
The children's system CPU time, which is the amount of time the kernel
has spent exe‐
cuting system calls on behalf of all the process's waited-for
children (see STIME
above).

PRIORITY (PRI)
The kernel's internal priority for the process, usually just its
nice value plus
twenty. Different for real-time processes.

NICE (NI)
The nice value of a process, from 19 (low priority) to -20 (high
priority). A high
value means the process is being nice, letting others have a higher
relative priority.
The usual OS permission restrictions for adjusting priority apply.

STARTTIME (START)
The time the process was started.

PROCESSOR (CPU)
The ID of the CPU the process last executed on.

M_VIRT (VIRT)
The size of the virtual memory of the process.

M_RESIDENT (RES)
The resident set size (text + data + stack) of the process (i.e.
the size of the
process's used physical memory).

M_SHARE (SHR)
The size of the process's shared pages.

M_TRS (CODE)
The text resident set size of the process (i.e. the size of the
process's executable
instructions).

M_DRS (DATA)
The data resident set size (data + stack) of the process (i.e. the size
of anything ex‐
cept the process's executable instructions).

M_LRS (LIB)
The library size of the process.

M_SWAP (SWAP)
The size of the process's swapped pages.

M_PSS (PSS)
The proportional set size, same as M_RESIDENT but each page is divided
by the number of
processes sharing it.

M_M_PSSWP (PSSWP)
The proportional swap share of this mapping, unlike M_SWAP this does
not take into ac‐
count swapped out page of underlying shmem objects.

ST_UID (UID)
 The user ID of the process owner.

PERCENT_CPU (CPU%)
The percentage of the CPU time that the process is currently using.
This is the de‐
fault way to represent CPU usage in Linux. Each process can consume
up to 100% which
means the full capacity of the core it is running on. This is
sometimes called "Irix
mode" e.g. in top(1).

PERCENT_NORM_CPU (NCPU%)
The percentage of the CPU time that the process is currently using
normalized by CPU
count. This is sometimes called "Solaris mode" e.g. in top(1).

PERCENT_MEM (MEM%)
The percentage of memory the process is currently using (based on the
process's resi‐
dent memory size, see M_RESIDENT above).

USER The username of the process owner, or the user ID if the name can't be
determined.

On Linux the username is highlighted if the process has elevated

privileges, i.e. if it
has been started from binaries with file capabilities set or retained
Linux capabili‐
ties, via the ambient set, after switching from the root user.

TIME (TIME+)
The time, measured in clock ticks that the process has spent in user
and system time
(see UTIME, STIME above).

NLWP The number of Light-Weight Processes (=threads) in the process.

TGID The thread group ID.

CTID OpenVZ container ID, a.k.a virtual environment ID.

VPID OpenVZ process ID.

VXID VServer process ID.

RCHAR (RD_CHAR)
The number of bytes the process has read.

WCHAR (WR_CHAR)
The number of bytes the process has written.

SYSCR (RD_SYSC)
The number of read(2) syscalls for the process.

SYSCW (WR_SYSC)
The number of write(2) syscalls for the process.

RBYTES (IO_RBYTES)
Bytes of read(2) I/O for the process.
 WBYTES (IO_WBYTES)
Bytes of write(2) I/O for the process.

CNCLWB (IO_CANCEL)
Bytes of cancelled write(2) I/O.

IO_READ_RATE (DISK READ)

The I/O rate of read(2) in bytes per second, for the process.

IO_WRITE_RATE (DISK WRITE)

The I/O rate of write(2) in bytes per second, for the process.

IO_RATE (DISK R/W)

The I/O rate, IO_READ_RATE + IO_WRITE_RATE (see above).

CGROUP
Which cgroup the process is in. For a shortened view see the CCGROUP
column below.

CCGROUP
Shortened view of the cgroup name that the process is in. This
performs some pattern-
based replacements to shorten the displayed string and thus condense
the information.
/*.slice is shortened to /[*] (exceptions below)
/system.slice is shortened to /[S]
/user.slice is shortened to /[U]
/user-*.slice is shortened to /[U:*] (directly preceding /[U] before
dropped)
/machine.slice is shortened to /[M]
/machine-*.scope is shortened to /[SNC:*] (SNC: systemd nspawn
container), uppercase
for the monitor
/lxc.monitor.* is shortened to /[LXC:*]
/lxc.payload.* is shortened to /[lxc:*]
/*.scope is shortened to /!*
/*.service is shortened to /* (suffix removed)

Encountered escape sequences (e.g. from systemd) inside the cgroup

name are not de‐
coded.

OOM OOM killer score.

CTXT Incremental sum of voluntary and nonvoluntary context switches.

IO_PRIORITY (IO)
The I/O scheduling class followed by the priority if the class supports
it:
R for Realtime
B for Best-effort
id for Idle

PERCENT_CPU_DELAY (CPUD%)
The percentage of time spent waiting for a CPU (while runnable).
Requires CAP_NET_AD‐
MIN.
 PERCENT_IO_DELAY (IOD%)
The percentage of time spent waiting for the completion of synchronous
block I/O. Re‐
quires CAP_NET_ADMIN.

PERCENT_SWAP_DELAY (SWAPD%)
The percentage of time spent swapping in pages. Requires CAP_NET_ADMIN.

AGRP The autogroup identifier for the process. Requires Linux CFS to be
enabled.

ANI The autogroup nice value for the process autogroup. Requires Linux CFS
to be enabled.

All other flags

Currently unsupported (always displays '-').

EXTERNAL LIBRARIES
While htop depends on most of the libraries it uses at build time there
are two noteworthy
exceptions to this rule. These exceptions both relate to data displayed in
meters displayed
in the header of htop and were intentionally created as optional runtime
dependencies in‐
stead. These exceptions are described below:

libsystemd
The bindings for libsystemd are used in the SystemD meter to
determine the number of
active services and the overall system state. Looking for the
functions to determine
these information at runtime allows for builds to support these
meters without forc‐
ing the package manager to install these libraries on systems that
otherwise don't
use systemd.

Summary: no build time dependency, optional runtime dependency on

libsystemd via dy‐
namic loading, with systemctl(1) fallback.

libsensors
The bindings for libsensors are used for the CPU temperature
readings in the CPU us‐
age meters if displaying the temperature is enabled through the setup
screen. In or‐
der for htop to show these temperatures correctly though, a proper
configuration of
libsensors through its usual configuration files is assumed and that
all CPU cores
correspond to temperature sensors from the coretemp driver with core
0 corresponding
to a sensor labelled "Core 0". The package temperature may be given
as "Package id
0". If missing it is inferred as the maximum value from the
available per-core read‐
ings.

Summary: build time dependency on libsensors(3) C header files,

optional runtime de‐
pendency on libsensors(3) via dynamic loading.

CONFIG FILES
By default htop reads its configuration from the XDG-compliant path
~/.config/htop/htoprc.
The configuration file is overwritten upon clean exit by htop's in-program
Setup configura‐
tion, so it should not be hand-edited. If no user configuration exists
htop tries to read
the system-wide configuration from /etc/htoprc and as a last resort, falls
back to its hard
coded defaults.

You may override the location of the configuration file using the $HTOPRC
environment vari‐
able (so you can have multiple configurations for different machines that
share the same
home directory, for example).

The pcp-htop utility makes use of htoprc in exactly the same way. In
addition, it supports
additional configuration files allowing new meters and columns to be added
to the display
via the usual Setup function, which will display additional Available
Meters and Available
Column entries for each runtime configured meter or column.

These pcp-htop configuration files are read once at startup. The format of
these files is
described in detail in the pcp-htop(5) manual page.

This functionality makes available many thousands of Performance Co-Pilot

metrics for dis‐
play by pcp-htop, as well as the ability to display custom metrics added
at individual
sites. Applications and services instrumented using the OpenMetrics
format https://open‐
metrics.io can also be displayed by pcp-htop if the pmdaopenmetrics(1)
component is config‐
ured.

The configuration for both htop and pcp-htop is only saved when a clean
exit is performed.
Sending any signal will cause all configuration changes to be lost.

MEMORY SIZES
Memory sizes in htop are displayed in a human-readable form. Sizes are
printed in powers of
1024 using binary IEC units. If no suffix is shown the units are
implicitly K as in KiB
(kibibyte, 1 KiB = 1024 bytes).

The decision to use this convention was made in order to conserve screen
space and make mem‐
ory size representations consistent throughout htop as allocations are
granular to full mem‐
ory pages (4 KiB for most platforms).
SEE ALSO
proc(5), top(1), free(1), ps(1), uptime(1) and limits.conf(5).

SEE ALSO FOR PCP

pmdaopenmetrics(1), PCPIntro(1), PMAPI(3), and pcp-htop(5).

AUTHORS
htop was originally developed by Hisham Muhammad. Nowadays it is maintained
by the commu‐
nity at <[email protected]>.

pcp-htop is maintained as a collaboration between the <[email protected]> and

<[email protected]>
communities, and forms part of the Performance Co-Pilot suite of tools.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2004-2019 Hisham Muhammad.
Copyright © 2020-2024 htop dev team.

License GPLv2+: GNU General Public License version 2 or, at your option, any
later version.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is
NO WARRANTY, to
the extent permitted by law.

htop 3.3.0 2024

HTOP(1)