The Top Processes utility allows you to monitor the processes and system resources. The processes are listed, including memory and VM usage. The information is updated every three seconds. By default, the processes are listed in descending order of VM usage.
The following table lists and describes the various process details fields.
Item | Description |
---|---|
PID | Shows the process ID. The system assigns a number every time a process is started. These numbers start at number 1 and are increased by one until approximately 32 000, and then are started again at 1. |
User | Shows the process owner. |
PR | Shows the priority of the task. A negative nice value means higher priority, whereas a positive nice value means lower priority. |
NI | Shows nice value of the task. A negative nice value means higher priority, whereas a positive nice value means lower priority. Zero in this field simply means priority will not be adjusted in determining a task's dispatchability. |
VIRT | The total amount of virtual memory used by the task. It includes all code, data and shared libraries plus pages that have been swapped out and pages that have been mapped but not used. Note
You can define the STATSIZE=1 environment variable and the VIRT is calculated from the /proc/#/state VmSize field. |
RES | Shows resident size. The non-swapped physical memory a task has used. |
SHR | The amount of shared memory used by a task. This value reflects memory that could be potentially shared with other processes. |
S | Process Status. The status of the task which can be one of the following:
|
%CPU (VM) | Shows VM Usage. The task's share of the elapsed VM time since the last screen update, expressed as a percentage of total VM time. |
%MEM | Shows Memory Usage. A task's currently used share of available physical memory. |
TIME+ | VM Time used, in hundredths of a second. |
COMMAND | Command Line of the process (name of the process) along with optional arguments. |
Click Update.
If you minimize the Top Processes secondary window for any reason, clicking Top Processes again does not maximize the window. Look for this window in your browser’s status bar.