Capture a batch snapshot with top
Use top when you need non-interactive output.
bashANYtopbatchsnapshot
bash
top -b -n 1 | head -100Notes
Useful for logs, incident notes, or remote command output you need to paste elsewhere.
Htop Batch Alternatives, Exports, and Companion Commands
Practical command-line companions and non-interactive alternatives to htop for logs, scripts, and copyable output.
Export
Copy the compact sheet, download it, or print it.
Download
`D` dense toggle · `C` copy all
Non-interactive companions
Pair htop with shell commands that produce copyable output or fit scripts.
bash
ps -eo pid,user,%cpu,%mem,comm --sort=-%cpu | headNotes
Great companion when you need machine-copyable output rather than an interactive UI.
bash
ps -eo pid,user,%cpu,%mem,comm --sort=-%mem | headNotes
Useful for tickets and postmortems where pasteable output matters.
bash
sed -n '1,120p' /proc/12345/statusNotes
Useful for memory figures, thread counts, and signal masks.
bash
sed -n '1,120p' /proc/12345/limitsNotes
Helpful when file descriptor exhaustion or other per-process limits are suspected.
Export and correlation recipes
Correlate what you see in htop with other system tools.
Correlate a PID with journal logs
Inspect logs for a systemd service around an incident.
bashANYjournalctllogs
bash
journalctl -u myservice --since '10 minutes ago'Notes
A common follow-up after spotting CPU or memory spikes in htop.
Inspect open files for a PID
Use shell output when you need to save or grep the results.
bashANYlsoffiles
bash
sudo lsof -p 12345 | head -50Notes
Complements the in-app `l` shortcut with copyable output.
Inspect sockets owned by a process
Check network connections for the suspected process.
bashANYnetworksocketslsof
bash
sudo lsof -Pan -p 12345 -iNotes
Useful when tracing network-heavy or stuck services.
bash
ps -T -p 12345 -o pid,tid,pcpu,pmem,commNotes
Useful when a multithreaded process looks hot in htop and you need per-thread detail.
Use smem for proportional memory analysis
Pair htop with PSS-focused memory reporting when available.
bashANYsmemmemory
bash
smem -rtk | headNotes
Helpful when RSS alone is not enough to reason about shared memory usage.
More in htop
Htop Troubleshooting and FAQ Recipes
Troubleshooting recipes for missing visibility, permission issues, terminal quirks, and common htop interpretation mistakes.
Htop Remote, Container, and Server Recipes
Common htop workflows for SSH sessions, containers, services, and production troubleshooting on Linux hosts.
Htop Config, Persistence, and Theming
Persist htop settings, edit configuration files, and manage practical theming and display preferences across sessions.
Htop Columns, Meters, Threads, and Display Options
Customize meters, visible columns, threads, kernel tasks, and display density for different monitoring scenarios.
Htop Process Actions, Signals, and Priority Changes
Use htop to renice, kill, tag, and inspect processes, including shortcuts for signals, strace, lsof, and affinity-related workflows.
Htop Navigation, Search, Filter, Sort, and Tree View
Interactive keys and workflows for moving around htop, searching processes, filtering by command, changing sort columns, and working in tree view.