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F7 or ]Notes
Requires appropriate permissions, typically root.
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.
Export
Copy the compact sheet, download it, or print it.
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`D` dense toggle · `C` copy all
Priority and signals
Interactive actions that change process behavior directly from htop.
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F8 or [Notes
Useful when background jobs should yield more CPU to foreground work.
Send a signal to a process
Open the kill menu for the selected or tagged processes.
textANYkillsignal
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F9 or kNotes
Choose the signal interactively, such as TERM or KILL.
bash
kill -TERM 12345Notes
TERM asks the process to exit cleanly before resorting to stronger signals.
Adjust nice value from the shell
Companion command when you prefer non-interactive changes.
bashANYreniceshell
bash
sudo renice -n -5 -p 12345Notes
Negative nice values increase scheduling priority.
Tag processes for group actions
Mark multiple processes, then send one action to all of them.
textANYtagbulk-action
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Space to tag, U to untagNotes
Tagged processes can be killed together from the signal menu.
Inspection tools
Attach external tools or inspect files and locks for the selected process.
Trace system calls with strace
Attach strace to the selected process if installed.
textANYstracesyscalls
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sNotes
Shows a live view of system calls for the selected process.
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lNotes
Useful for sockets, logs, deleted files still held open, and lock files.
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xNotes
Helpful when debugging stuck jobs or lock contention.
bash
sudo strace -p 12345Notes
Helpful if you want to control strace flags more precisely than the in-app shortcut.
bash
sudo lsof -p 12345Notes
Pairs well with htop when you need copyable terminal output.
Inspect CPU affinity from the shell
Complement htop when tracking placement or pinning.
bashANYaffinitytaskset
bash
taskset -pc 12345Notes
Shows which CPU cores a process may run on.
More in htop
Htop Troubleshooting and FAQ Recipes
Troubleshooting recipes for missing visibility, permission issues, terminal quirks, and common htop interpretation mistakes.
Htop Batch Alternatives, Exports, and Companion Commands
Practical command-line companions and non-interactive alternatives to htop for logs, scripts, and copyable output.
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 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.