Linux for Developers
/Intermediate
htop
Definition
An interactive, visually enhanced process viewer. It is a more modern, user-friendly alternative to `top`, featuring color-coded graphs and the ability to scroll horizontally and vertically.
Explain Like I'm New
Task Manager with a beautiful UI. It draws colorful bars to show CPU usage, lets you use the mouse to click on things, and lets you kill processes without typing their numbers.
Real World Example
Instead of using `ps` to find an ID and then typing `kill`, a developer opens `htop`, uses the arrow keys to highlight the frozen database process, and hits the `F9` key to instantly kill it.
Common Use Cases
- •Interactive process management
- •Visual performance monitoring
Interview Questions
basic
- Is `htop` installed by default on all Linux servers?
intermediate
- How does `htop` display processes that have multiple threads?