sections
that follow. There is also an Input/Message line between the Summary Area and Columns Header which needs no further explanation.
The main top screen is generally quite adaptive to changes in terminal dimensions under X‐Windows. Other top screens may be less so, especially those with static text. It ultimately depends, however, on your
particular window manager and terminal emulator. There may be occasions when their view of terminal size and current contents differs from top’s view, which is always based on operating system calls.
Following any re‐size operation, if a top screen is corrupted, appears incomplete or disordered, simply typing something innocuous like a punctuation character or cursor motion key will usually restore it. In extreme
cases, the following sequence almost certainly will:
key/cmd objective
^Z suspend top
fg resume top
<Left> force a screen redraw (if necessary)
But if the display is still corrupted, there is one more step you could try. Insert this command after top has been suspended but before resuming it.
key/cmd objective
reset restore your terminal settings
Note: the width of top’s display will be limited to 512 positions. Displaying all fields requires approximately 250 characters. Remaining screen width is usually allocated to any variable width columns currently
visible. The variable width columns, such as COMMAND, are noted in topic 3a. DESCRIPTIONS of Fields. Actual output width may also be influenced by the -w switch, which is discussed in topic 1. COMMAND-LINE Options.
Lastly, some of top’s screens or functions require the use of cursor motion keys like the standard arrow keys plus the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys. If your terminal or emulator does not provide those keys, the
following combinations are accepted as alternatives:
key equivalent‐keys
Left alt + h
Down alt + j
Up alt + k
Right alt + l
Home alt + ctrl + h
PgDn alt + ctrl + j
PgUp alt + ctrl + k
End alt + ctrl + l
The Up and Down arrow keys have special significance when prompted for line input terminated with the <Enter> key. Those keys, or their aliases, can be used to retrieve previous input lines which can then be edited
and re‐input. And there are four additional keys available with line oriented input.
key special‐significance
Up recall older strings for re‐editing
Down recall newer strings or erase entire line
Insert toggle between insert and overtype modes
Delete character removed at cursor, moving others left
Home jump to beginning of input line
End jump to end of input line
Linux Memory Types
For our purposes there are three types of memory, and one is optional. First is physical memory, a limited resource where code and data must reside when executed or referenced. Next is the optional swap file, where
modified (dirty) memory can be saved and later retrieved if too many demands are made on physical memory. Lastly we have virtual memory, a nearly unlimited resource serving the following goals:
1. abstraction, free from physical memory addresses/limits
2. isolation, every process in a separate address space
3. sharing, a single mapping can serve multiple needs
4. flexibility, assign a virtual address to a file
Regardless of which of these forms memory may take, all are managed as pages (typically 4096 bytes) but expressed by default in top as KiB (kibibyte). The memory discussed under topic ‘2c. MEMORY Usage’ deals with
physical