Top Commands

PID: Process identification number. USER: The name of the user running the process. PR: The scheduling priority for the process. NI: The nice value of the process, with negative numbers indicating higher priority. VIRT: The virtual memory amount used by the process. RES: The resident (physical) memory amount used by the process. SHR: The total shared memory used by the process. S: The status of the process - R (running) or S (sleeping). %CPU: The percentage of CPU usage. %MEM: The memory usage percentage. TIME+: Total CPU usage amount. COMMAND: The name of the command that started the process. While the top command is running, use the following options to interact with it or change the output format:

c: Display the absolute process path. d: Change the output refresh rate to a user-defined value (in seconds). h: Display the help window. k: Kill a process by providing the PID. M: Sort the list by memory usage. N: Sort the list by PID. r: Change the nice value (priority) of a process by providing the PID. z: Change the output colour to highlight running processes. q: Quit the command interface.