top(1) top(1)
NAME
top - display and update sorted information about processes
SYNOPSIS
top [-a | -d | -e | -c <mode>]
[-F | -f]
[-h]
[-i <interval>]
[-k]
[-L | -l <samples>]
[-o <key>] [-O <skey>]
[-p <format>] [-P <legend>]
[-R | -r]
[-S]
[-s <delay>]
[-T | -t]
[-U <user>]
[-u]
[-W | -w]
[-X | -x]
[[-n] <nprocs>]
DESCRIPTION
The top program periodically displays a sorted list of system processes. The default sorting key is
pid, but other keys can be used instead. Various output options are available.
OPTIONS
Command line option specifications are processed from left to right. Options can be specified more
than once. If conflicting options are specified, later specifications override earlier ones. This
makes it viable to create a shell alias for top with preferred defaults specified, then override
those preferred defaults as desired on the command line.
-a Deprecated, equivalent to -ca.
-c <mode>
Set event counting mode to <mode>. The supported modes are:
a Accumulative mode. Count events cumulatively, starting at the launch of top. Calcu-late Calculate
late CPU usage and CPU time since the launch of top.
d Delta mode. Count events relative to the previous sample. Calculate CPU usage since
the previous sample.
e Absolute mode. Count events using absolute counters.
n Non-event mode (default). Calculate CPU usage since the previous sample.
-d Deprecated, equivalent to -cd.
-e Deprecated, equivalent to -ce.
-F Do not calculate statistics on shared libraries, also known as frameworks.
-f Calculate statistics on shared libraries, also known as frameworks (default).
-h Print command line usage information and exit.
-i <interval>
Update framework (-f) info every <interval> samples; see the PERFORMANCE vs. ACCURACY section
below for more details.
-k Deprecated (does nothing). This flag used to turn on memory object reporting for process 0
(kernel_task), but this is now done by default.
-L Use non-logging mode. If not running on a terminal, exit with an error rather than running in
logging mode.
-l <samples>
Use logging mode and display <samples> samples, even if standard output is a terminal. 0 is
treated as infinity. Rather than redisplaying, output is periodically printed in raw form.
Note that the first sample displayed will have an invalid %CPU displayed for each process, as
it is calculated using the delta between samples.
-n <nprocs>
Only display up to <nprocs> processes. <nprocs> can be specified as the last command line ar-gument argument
gument without the -n flag preceding it. However, doing so is deprecated command line usage.
-O <skey>
Use <skey> as a secondary key when ordering the process display. See -o for key names (pid is
default).
-o <key>
Order the process display by sorting on <key> in descending order. A + or - can be prefixed
to the key name to specify ascending or descending order, respectively. The supported keys
are:
command
Command name.
cpu CPU usage.
pid Process ID (default)..
prt Number of Mach ports.
reg Number of memory regions.
rprvt Resident private address space size.
rshrd Resident shared address space size.
rsize Resident memory size.
th Number of threads.
time Execution time.
uid User ID.
username
Username.
vprvt Private address space size.
vsize Total memory size.
-P <legend>
Set a custom legend string (containing the column headings); this should usually be used with
a custom format string.
-p <format>
Set a custom format string to display process info; see the CUSTOM DISPLAY FORMAT section for
more information on this option.
-R Do not traverse and report the memory object map for each process.
-r Traverse and report the memory object map for each process (default).
-S Display information about swap usage and purgeable memory.
-s <delay>
Set the delay between updates to <delay> seconds. The default delay between updates is 1 sec-ond. second.
ond.
-T Do not translate uid numbers to usernames (default).
-t Translate uid numbers to usernames.
-U <user>
Only display processes owned by <user>. Either the username or uid number can be specified.
-u Deprecated, equivalent to -ocpu -Otime.
-W Display + or - to indicate deltas (default).
-w Display delta values, rather than just + or -.
-X Run using the legacy display format.
-x Run using the nominal display format.
DISPLAY
The first several lines of the top display show various global state. All of the information
is labeled. Following is an alphabetical list of global state fields and their descriptions.
CPU Percentage of processor usage, broken into user, system, and idle components. The time
period for which these percentages are calculated depends on the event counting mode.
Disks Number and total size of disk reads and writes.
LoadAvg Load average over 1, 5, and 15 minutes. The load average is the average number of jobs
in the run queue.
MemRegions Number and total size of memory regions, and total size of memory regions broken into
private (broken into non-library and library) and shared components.
Networks Number and total size of input and output network packets.
PhysMem Physical memory usage, broken into wired, active, inactive, used, and free components.
Procs Total number of processes and number of processes in each process state.
SharedLibs Number of shared libraries, resident sizes of code and data segments, and link editor
memory usage.
Threads Number of threads.
Time Time, in YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS format. When running in accumulative event counting mode,
the time since top started is printed in parentheses in H:MM:SS format.
VirtMem Total virtual memory, virtual memory consumed by shared libraries, and number of pageins
and pageouts.
Swap Swap usage: total size of swap areas, amount of swap space in use and amount of swap
space available.
Purgeable Number of pages purged and number of pages currently purgeable.
Below the global state fields, a list of processes is displayed. The fields that are displayed de-pend depend
pend on the options that are set. Following is an alphabetical list of fields and their descrip-tions. descriptions.
tions.
BSYSCALL Number of BSD system calls made.
COMMAND Command name.
COW_FAULTS Number of faults that caused a page to be copied.
%CPU Percentage of processor time consumed (kernel and user).
CSWITCH Number of context switches.
FAULTS Number of faults.
MSYSCALL Number of Mach system calls made.
REG Number of memory regions.
MSGS_RCVD Number of Mach messages received.
MSGS_SENT Number of Mach messages sent.
PAGEINS Number of requests for pages from a pager.
PID Process ID.
PRT(delta) Number of Mach ports.
RPRVT(delta) Resident private memory size.
RSHRD(delta) Resident shared memory size.
RSIZE(delta) Total resident memory size, including shared pages.
TH Number of threads.
TIME Absolute processor time consumed.
UID User ID of process owner.
USERNAME Username of process owner.
VPRVT(delta) Private address space size.
VSIZE(delta) Total address space allocated, including shared pages.
INTERACTION
When top is run in interactive (non-logging) mode, it is possible to control the output of top, as
well as interactively send signals to processes. The interactive command syntax is terse. Each com-mand command
mand is one character, followed by 0 to 2 arguments. Commands that take arguments prompt interac-tively interactively
tively for the arguments, and where applicable, the default value is shown in square brackets. The
default value can be selected by leaving the input field blank and pressing enter. ^G escapes the
interactive argument prompt, and has the same effect as leaving the input field blank and pressing
enter.
The following commands are supported:
? Display the help screen. Any character exits help screen mode. This command always works,
even in the middle of a command.
^L Redraw the screen.
c<mode>
Set output mode to <mode>. The supported modes are:
a Accumulative mode.
d Delta mode.
e Event mode.
n Non-event mode.
f Toggle shared library statistics reporting.
n<nprocs>
Only display up to <nprocs> processes. 0 is treated as infinity.
O<skey>
Use <skey> as a secondary key when ordering the process display. See the o command for key
names.
o<key>
Order the process display by sorting on <key> in descending order. A + or - can be prefixed
to the key name to specify ascending or descending order, respectively. The supported keys
are:
command
Command name.
cpu CPU usage.
pid Process ID.
prt Number of Mach ports.
reg Number of memory regions.
rprvt Resident private address space size.
rshrd Resident shared address space size.
rsize Resident memory size.
th Number of threads.
time Execution time.
uid User ID.
username
Username.
vprvt Private address space size.
vsize Total memory size.
q Quit.
r Toggle traversal and reporting of the memory object map for each process.
S<signal><pid>
Send <sig> to <pid>. <sig> can be specified either as a number or as a name (for example,
HUP). The default signal starts out as TERM. Each time a signal is successfully sent, the
default signal is updated to be that signal. <pid> is a process id.
s<delay>
Set the delay between updates to <delay> seconds.
t Toggle translation of uid numbers to usernames.
U<user>
Only display processes owned by <user>. Either the username or uid number can be specified.
To display all processes, press enter without entering a username or uid number.
w Toggle wide/narrow delta mode.
x Toggle display formats.
PERFORMANCE vs. ACCURACY
Calculating detailed memory statistics is fundamentally resource-intensive. To reduce the cpu usage
in top, the -i parameter has been introduced to allow the user to tune this tradeoff. With the de-fault default
fault value of 10, framework stats will be updated once every 10 samples. Specifying -i 1 will re-sult result
sult in the most accurate display, at the expense of system resources.
CUSTOM DISPLAY FORMATS
Users who would like to change the format of the top process display lines may use the -p option to
specify a custom format. Any number of fields may be specified, and the the order of these fields
and their widths may be specified by using the following special syntax.
The following fields are available:
a Process ID (PID)
b command string
c CPU usage (percentage)
d CPU usage (time)
e threads
f Mach ports
g memory regions
h RPRVT
i RSHRD
j RSIZE
k VPRVT
l VSIZE
m UID
n username
o page faults
p pageins
q COW faults
r messages sent
s messages received
t bsyscall
u msyscall
v cswitch
w time (in HH:MM:SS) format
Each format specification is introduced by either the carat (^) character (indicating left justifica-tion) justification)
tion) or the dollar ($) character (indicating right justification). It is then followed by the de-sired desired
sired format character; this character may be repeated to delineate the field width. (For example,
Certain fields (f, h, i, j, l) may be followed by one or more dash (-) characters; this will cause a
delta to be displayed. One dash will display `-', `+' or ' ' to indicate a decrease, increase, or
no change in the value. Multiple dashes will result in an actual delta value being displayed.
The backslash character may be used to escape any character, including itself. Any other character
will be displayed as a literal.
The -P flag may be used to specify a custom legend line. Specifying either -P or -p without a fol-lowing following
lowing format string will cause top to display the default legend and format for the selected display
mode.
EXAMPLES
top -ocpu -O+rsize -s 5 -n 20
Sort the processes according to CPU usage (descending) and resident memory size (ascending),
sample and update the display at 5 second intervals, and limit the display to 20 processes.
top -ce
Run top in event counter mode.
top -tl 10
Translate uid numbers to usernames and run in logging mode, taking 10 samples at 2 second in-tervals. intervals.
tervals.
top -P ' PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE' \
-p '$aaaa ^bbbbbbbbb $cccc% $wwwwwww $ee $ffff-$ggggg $hhhh- $iiii- $jjjj- $llll-' This
will recreate the default process display.
SEE ALSO
kill(2), vm_stat(1), signal(3)
top top(1)
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