--- name: "top" section: "1" platform: "openbsd" package: "man" version: "8.0-current-20261101" release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)" platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/top" --- # top(1) display and update information about the top CPU processes ## NAME **top** – display and update information about the top CPU processes ## SYNOPSIS **top** \[**-1bCHIinqStu**\] \[**-d** *count*\] \[**-g** *string*\] \[**-o** \[-\]*field*\] \[**-p** *pid*\] \[**-s** *time*\] \[**-T** \[-\]*rtable*\] \[**-U** \[-\]*user*\] \[*number*\] ## DESCRIPTION **top** displays the top processes on the system and periodically updates this information. If standard output is an intelligent terminal (see below) then as many processes as will fit on the terminal screen are displayed by default. Otherwise, a good number of them are shown (around 20). Raw CPU percentage is used to rank the processes. If *number* is given, then the top *number* processes will be displayed instead of the default. **top** makes a distinction between terminals that support advanced capabilities and those that do not. This distinction affects the choice of defaults for certain options. In the remainder of this document, an *intelligent* terminal is one that supports cursor addressing, clear screen, and clear to end of line. Conversely, a *dumb* terminal is one that does not support such features. If the output of **top** is redirected to a file, it acts as if it were being run on a dumb terminal. The options are as follows: - **-1** Display combined CPU statistics for all processors on a single line instead of one line per CPU. If there are more than 8 CPUs detected in the system, this option is automatically enabled. - **-b** Use *batch* mode. In this mode, all input from the terminal is ignored. Interrupt characters (such as ‘^C’ and ‘^\\’) still have an effect. This is the default on a dumb terminal, or when the output is not a terminal. - **-C** Show command line arguments as well as the process itself. - **-d** *count* Show only *count* displays, then exit. A display is considered to be one update of the screen. This option allows the user to select the number of displays to be shown before **top** automatically exits. For intelligent terminals, no upper limit is set. The default is 1 for dumb terminals. - **-g** *string* Display only processes that contain *string* in their command name. If displaying of arguments is enabled, the arguments are searched too. - **-H** Show process threads in the display. Normally, only the main process is shown. This option makes all threads visible. - **-I** Do not display idle processes. By default, **top** displays both active and idle processes. - **-i** Use *interactive* mode. In this mode, any input is immediately read for processing. See the section on INTERACTIVE MODE for an explanation of which keys perform what functions. After the command is processed, the screen will immediately be updated, even if the command was not understood. This mode is the default when standard output is an intelligent terminal. - **-n** Use *non-interactive* mode. This is identical to *batch* mode. - **-o** \[-\]*field* Sort the process display area using the specified *field* as the primary key. The field name is the name of the column as seen in the output, but in lower case. The ‘-’ prefix reverses the order. The OpenBSD version of **top** supports **cpu**, **size**, **res**, **time**, **pri**, **pid**, and **command**. - **-p** *pid* Show only the process *pid*. - **-q** Renice **top** to -20 so that it will run faster. This can be used when the system is being very sluggish to improve the possibility of discovering the problem. This option can only be used by root. - **-S** Show system processes in the display. Normally, system processes such as the pager and the swapper are not shown. This option makes them visible. - **-s** *time* Set the delay between screen updates to *time* seconds. The value may be fractional, to permit delays of less than 1 second. The default delay between updates is 5 seconds. - **-T** \[-\]*rtable* Display only processes associated with the specified routing table *rtable*. ‘T+’ shows processes associated with all routing tables. The ‘-’ prefix hides processes associated with a single routing table. - **-t** Display routing tables. By default, routing tables are not shown. - **-U** \[-\]*user* Show only those processes owned by username or UID *user*. The prefix ‘-’ hides processes owned by that user. - **-u** Do not take the time to map UID numbers to usernames. Normally, **top** will read as much of the password database as is necessary to map all the user ID numbers it encounters into login names. This option disables all that, while possibly decreasing execution time. The UID numbers are displayed instead of the names. Both *count* and *number* fields can be specified as infinite, indicating that they can stretch as far as possible. This is accomplished by using any proper prefix of the keywords infinity, maximum, or all. The default for *count* on an intelligent terminal is, in fact, infinity. The environment variable TOP is examined for options before the command line is scanned. This enables users to set their own defaults. The number of processes to display can also be specified in the environment variable TOP. The options **-I**, **-S**, and **-u** are actually toggles. A second specification of any of these options will negate the first. Thus a user who has the environment variable TOP set to “-I” may use the command “top -I” to see idle processes. ## INTERACTIVE MODE When **top** is running in *interactive* *mode*, it reads commands from the terminal and acts upon them accordingly. In this mode, the terminal is put in CBREAK, so that a character will be processed as soon as it is typed. Almost always, a key will be pressed when **top** is between displays; that is, while it is waiting for *time* seconds to elapse. If this is the case, the command will be processed and the display will be updated immediately thereafter (reflecting any changes that the command may have specified). This happens even if the command was incorrect. If a key is pressed while **top** is in the middle of updating the display, it will finish the update and then process the command. Some commands require additional information, and the user will be prompted accordingly. While typing this information in, the user's erase and kill keys (as set up by the command [stty(1)](/stty/1.md)) are recognized, and a newline terminates the input. These commands are currently recognized (^L refers to control-L): - h \| ? Display a summary of the commands (help screen). - ^L Redraw the screen. - \ Update the screen. - q Quit **top**. - \+ Reset any filters put in place by the ‘g’, ‘p’, and ‘u’ interactive commands, or their command line equivalents, or any process highlighting put in place by the ‘P’ interactive command. - 1 Toggle the display of per CPU or combined CPU statistics. - 9 \| 0 Scroll up/down the process list by one line. - ( \| ) Scroll up/down the process list by screen half. - C Toggle the display of process command line arguments. - d *count* Show only *count* displays, then exit. - e Display a list of system errors (if any) generated by the last kill or renice command. - g\|/ *string* Display only processes that contain *string* in their command name. If displaying of arguments is enabled, the arguments are searched too. ‘g+’ or ‘/+’ shows all processes. - H Toggle the display of process threads. - I \| i Toggle the display of idle processes. - k \[-*sig*\] *pid* Send signal -*sig* (TERM by default) to process *pid*. This acts similarly to the command [kill(1)](/kill/1.md). - n\|# *count* Show *count* processes. - o \[-\]*field* Sort the process display area using the specified *field* as the primary key. The ‘-’ prefix reverses the order. Values are the same as for the **-o** flag, as detailed above. - P *pid* Highlight a specific process, selected by *pid*. ‘P+’ removes process highlighting. - p *pid* Show only the process *pid*. ‘p+’ shows all processes. - r *count* *pid* Change the priority (the *nice*) of a list of processes to *count* for process *pid*. This acts similarly to the command [renice(8)](/renice/8.md). - S Toggle the display of system processes. - s *time* Set the delay between screen updates to *time* seconds. - T \[-\]*rtable* Display only processes associated with the specified routing table *rtable*. ‘T+’ shows processes associated with all routing tables. The ‘-’ prefix hides processes associated with a single routing table. - t Toggle the display of routing tables. - u \[-\]*user* Show only those processes owned by username or UID *user*. ‘u+’ shows processes belonging to all users. The ‘-’ prefix hides processes belonging to a single *user*. ## THE DISPLAY The top few lines of the display show general information about the state of the system, including the three load average numbers, the hostname, the current time, the number of existing processes, the number of processes in each state (starting, running, idle, stopped, zombie, dead, and on processor), and a percentage of time spent in each of the processor states (user, nice, system, spinning, interrupt, and idle). It also includes information about physical and virtual memory allocation. The load average numbers give the number of jobs in the run queue averaged over 1, 5, and 15 minutes. The remainder of the screen displays information about individual processes. This display is similar in spirit to [ps(1)](/ps/1.md) but it is not exactly the same. The following fields are displayed: - PID The process ID. - USERNAME The name of the process's owner. - TID The thread ID, used instead of USERNAME if **-H** is specified. - UID Used instead of USERNAME if **-u** is specified. - PRI The current priority of the process. - NICE The nice amount (in the range -20 to 20). - SIZE The total size of the process (the text, data, and stack segments). - RES The current amount of resident memory. - STATE The current state (one of start, run, sleep, stop, idle, zomb, dead, or onproc). On multiprocessor systems, this is followed by a slash and the CPU number on which the process is bound. - WAIT A description of the wait channel the process is sleeping on if it's asleep. - RTABLE The routing table, used instead of WAIT if **-t** is specified. - TIME The number of system and user CPU seconds that the process has used. - CPU The raw percentage of CPU usage and the default field on which the display is sorted. - COMMAND The name (and arguments if **-C** is specified) of the command that the process is currently running. ## ENVIRONMENT - TOP User-configurable defaults for options. ## FILES - */dev/kmem* kernel memory - */dev/mem* physical memory - */etc/passwd* used to map user ID to user - */bsd* kernel image ## SEE ALSO [fstat(1)](/fstat/1.md), [kill(1)](/kill/1.md), [netstat(1)](/netstat/1.md), [ps(1)](/ps/1.md), [stty(1)](/stty/1.md), [systat(1)](/systat/1.md), [mem(4)](/mem/4.md), [iostat(8)](/iostat/8.md), [pstat(8)](/pstat/8.md), [renice(8)](/renice/8.md), [vmstat(8)](/vmstat/8.md) ## AUTHORS William LeFebvre, EECS Department, Northwestern University ## CAVEATS As with [ps(1)](/ps/1.md), **top** only provides snapshots of a constantly changing system.