Final answer:
The top command is a Linux command that displays processes, memory utilization, and other details about running programs. It provides a real-time overview of the system's performance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The top command is a Linux command that displays processes, memory utilization, and other details about running programs. It provides a real-time overview of the system and allows users to monitor and manage the system's performance.
When executed, the top command displays a dynamic list of processes, sorted by various criteria such as CPU usage or memory consumption. The command also provides information on the system's CPU utilization, physical and virtual memory usage, and other system statistics.
For example, running the command top in a terminal window will generate an output similar to the following:
top - 23:27:10 up 1 day, 2:28, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.16, 0.09
Tasks: 280 total, 1 running, 279 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.3% us, 0.2% sy, 0.0% ni, 99.5% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si, 0.0% st
KiB Mem : 2045912 total, 125508 free, 618580 used, 1307824 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 2097148 total, 1654528 free, 442620 used. 1285300 avail Mem
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1 root 20 0 168588 6328 4576 S 0.0 0.3 0:01.31 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rcu_gp
4 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rcu_par_gp