‘t’ command toggle. They show an abbreviated summary consisting of these elements:
a b c d
%Cpu(s): 75.0/25.0 100[ ... ]
Where: a) is the ‘user’ (us + ni) percentage; b) is the ‘system’ (sy + hi + si) percentage; c) is the total percentage; and d) is one of two visual graphs of those representations. Such graphs also reflect separate
‘user’ and ‘system’ portions.
If the ‘4’ command toggle is used to yield more than two cpus per line, results will be further abridged eliminating the a) and b) elements. However, that information is still reflected in the graph itself assuming
color is active or, if not, bars vs. blocks are being shown.
See topic 4b. SUMMARY AREA Commands for additional information on the ‘t’ and ‘4’ command toggles.
2c. MEMORY Usage
This portion consists of two lines which may express values in kibibytes (KiB) through exbibytes (EiB) depending on the scaling factor enforced with the ‘E’ interactive command.
As a default, Line 1 reflects physical memory, classified as:
total, free, used and buff/cache
Line 2 reflects mostly virtual memory, classified as:
total, free, used and avail (which is physical memory)
The avail number on line 2 is an estimation of physical memory available for starting new applications, without swapping. Unlike the free field, it attempts to account for readily reclaimable page cache and memory
slabs. It is available on kernels 3.14, emulated on kernels 2.6.27+, otherwise the same as free.
In the alternate memory display modes, two abbreviated summary lines are shown consisting of these elements:
a b c
GiB Mem : 18.7/15.738 [ ... ]
GiB Swap: 0.0/7.999 [ ... ]
Where: a) is the percentage used; b) is the total available; and c) is one of two visual graphs of those representations.
In the case of physical memory, the percentage represents the total minus the estimated avail noted above. The ‘Mem’ graph itself is divided between the non‐cached portion of used and any remaining memory not
otherwise accounted for by avail. See topic 4b. SUMMARY AREA Commands and the ‘m’ command for additional information on that special 4‐way toggle.
This table may help in interpreting the scaled values displayed:
KiB = kibibyte = 1024 bytes
MiB = mebibyte = 1024 KiB = 1,048,576 bytes
GiB = gibibyte = 1024 MiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes
TiB = tebibyte = 1024 GiB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
PiB = pebibyte = 1024 TiB = 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes
EiB = exbibyte = 1024 PiB = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes
3. FIELDS / Columns
3a. DESCRIPTIONS of Fields
Listed below are top’s available process fields (columns). They are shown in strict ascii alphabetical order. You may customize their position and whether or not they are displayable with the ‘f’ (Fields Management)
interactive command.
Any field is selectable as the sort field, and you control whether they are sorted high‐to‐low or low‐to‐high. For additional information on sort provisions see topic 4c. TASK AREA Commands, SORTING.
The fields related to physical memory or virtual memory reference ‘(KiB)’ which is the unsuffixed display mode. Such fields may, however, be scaled from KiB through PiB. That scaling is influenced via the ‘e’
interactive command or established for startup through a build option.
%CPU -- CPU Usage
The task’s share of the elapsed CPU time since the last screen update, expressed as a percentage of total CPU time.
In a true SMP environment, if a process is multi‐threaded and top is not operating in Threads mode, amounts greater than 100% may be reported. You toggle Threads mode with the ‘H’ interactive command.
Also for multi‐processor