hishamhm/htop

★ 5,903CAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((htop))
    What it does
      Process viewer
      Resource monitor
      Terminal UI
    Status
      Archived repo
      Moved to htop-dev
    Tech stack
      C
      Unix systems
    Use cases
      System monitoring
      Kill processes
      SSH server check

mindmap root((htop)) What it does Process viewer Resource monitor Terminal UI Status Archived repo Moved to htop-dev Tech stack C Unix systems Use cases System monitoring Kill processes SSH server check

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Monitor running processes, CPU load, and memory usage in real time from a terminal window.

USE CASE 2

Find and kill a runaway process by navigating the list with arrow keys and pressing F9.

USE CASE 3

Get a quick overview of system resource usage on a remote server over an SSH connection.

Tech stack

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

This repo is archived, install htop from github.com/htop-dev/htop or your system package manager (apt/brew/pacman).

GPL v2 -- free to use and modify, changes must remain open source under the same license.

In plain English

htop is an interactive process viewer for Unix systems, designed as a friendlier and more capable alternative to the standard top command. It displays a live list of running processes with information such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and uptime, updated in real time. Unlike top, htop is navigable with arrow keys, supports mouse interaction, and allows you to scroll through the full list of processes horizontally and vertically. The original author of htop was Hisham Muhammad. This GitHub repository, however, is archived. Development has moved to a new organization and repository at htop.dev, maintained by a team of volunteers. The official source code is now at github.com/htop-dev/htop. This archived repository is kept for historical reference but no new commits or issues are being accepted here. htop runs in a terminal window and does not require a graphical desktop environment. It works on Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems. You can sort processes by any column, send signals to processes (such as kill or suspend), and view a tree structure of parent and child processes to understand how programs are related. The license for this project is the GNU General Public License version 2, which permits free use, modification, and distribution as long as changes remain open source under the same terms. If you are looking to install or contribute to htop, the active repository is at github.com/htop-dev/htop. This archived version reflects the state of the project before it transitioned to community governance. Most Linux and macOS package managers already include htop and can install it with a single command.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I'm on a Linux server via SSH and want to find what process is using the most memory. How do I use htop to sort by memory and kill the offending process?

Prompt 2

How do I enable the process tree view in htop so I can see parent and child processes together?

Prompt 3

What is the difference between the archived hishamhm/htop and the active htop-dev/htop repo? Which one should I install?

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