quadrant except 4
USED - simply the sum of RES and SWAP
VIRT - everything in‐use and/or reserved (all quadrants)
Note: Even though program images and shared libraries are considered private to a process, they will be accounted for as shared (SHR) by the kernel.
1. COMMAND‐LINE Options
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
Although not required, the equals sign can be used with either option form and whitespace before and/or after the ‘=’ is permitted.
-b, --batch
Starts top in Batch mode, which could be useful for sending output from top to other programs or to a file. In this mode, top will not accept input and runs until the iterations limit you’ve set with the ‘-n’
command-line option or until killed.
-c, --cmdline-toggle
Starts top with the last remembered ‘c’ state reversed. Thus, if top was displaying command lines, now that field will show program names, and vice versa. See the ‘c’ interactive command for additional
information.
-d, --delay = SECS [.TENTHS]
Specifies the delay between screen updates, and overrides the corresponding value in one’s personal configuration file or the startup default. Later this can be changed with the ‘d’ or ‘s’ interactive commands.
Fractional seconds are honored, but a negative number is not allowed. In all cases, however, such changes are prohibited if top is running in Secure mode, except for root (unless the ‘s’ command-line option was
used). For additional information on Secure mode see topic 6d. SYSTEM Restrictions File.
-E, --scale‐summary‐mem = k | m | g | t | p | e
Instructs top to force summary area memory to be scaled as:
k - kibibytes
m - mebibytes
g - gibibytes
t - tebibytes
p - pebibytes
e - exbibytes
Later this can be changed with the ‘E’ command toggle.
-e, --scale‐task‐mem = k | m | g | t | p
Instructs top to force task area memory to be scaled as:
k - kibibytes
m - mebibytes
g - gibibytes
t - tebibytes
p - pebibytes
Later this can be changed with the ‘e’ command toggle.
-H, --threads‐show
Instructs top to display individual threads. Without this command-line option a summation of all threads in each process is shown. Later this can be changed with the ‘H’ interactive command.
-h, --help
Display usage help text, then quit.
-i, --idle‐toggle
Starts top with the last remembered ‘i’ state reversed. When this toggle is Off, tasks that have not used any CPU since the last update will not be displayed. For additional information regarding this toggle see
topic 4c. TASK AREA Commands, SIZE.
-n, --iterations = NUMBER
Specifies the maximum number of iterations, or frames, top should produce before ending.
-O, --list‐fields
This option acts as a form of help for the -o option shown below. It will cause top to print each of the available field names on a separate line, then quit. Such names are subject to NLS (National Language
Support) translation.
-o, --sort‐override = FIELDNAME
Specifies the name of the field on which tasks will be sorted, independent of what is reflected in the configuration file. You can prepend a ‘+’ or ‘-’ to the field name to also override the sort direction. A
leading ‘+’ will force sorting high to low, whereas a ‘-’ will ensure a low to high ordering.
This option exists primarily to support automated/scripted batch mode operation.
-p, --pid = PIDLIST (as: 1,2,3, ... or ‐p1 ‐p2 ‐p3 ...)
Monitor only processes with specified process IDs. However, when combined with Threads mode (‘H’),