Shell "top" command output - What does it all mean?

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by kissmyarse, Jan 1, 2009.

  1. #1
    Happy 2009 All,

    Can any gurus explain the output of the "top" command? I'm trying to debug my server which has quite a high server load. I've managed to log an hour of "top" output to a txt file and need to understand exactly what it's telling me.

    Specifically what are the us/sy/ni/id/wa/hi/si/st flags here?

    Cpu(s): 19.2%us, 19.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 61.1%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

    Thanks,
    kma
     
    kissmyarse, Jan 1, 2009 IP
  2. SSANZ

    SSANZ Peon

    Messages:
    861
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    Top displays what users, and system processes are using resources.

    The list of the processes along with the information is pretty obvious - CPU/MEM etc.

    Try installing htop, provides a lot more info and better.

    google - top linux
     
    SSANZ, Jan 1, 2009 IP