Process Management Tools

TOP and HTOP Commands

top Command:

• The top command provides a dynamic view of system processes, continuously updating in real-time.

top

• It displays a list of active processes with details like PID, CPU usage, memory usage, etc.

htop Command:

• htop is an enhanced alternative to top with a more user-friendly interface.

htop

• It provides a visually appealing display of processes and their resource utilization.

Process Management Utilities

kill Command:

• The kill command is used to send signals to processes.

# Terminate a process by PID 
kill <PID> 
# Send SIGTERM (termination) signal to a process 
kill -15 <PID> 
# Send SIGKILL (forceful termination) signal to a process 
kill -9 <PID>

killall Command:

• The killall command sends a signal to all processes with a specific name.

killall <process-name>

pstree Command

• The pstree command displays the processes in a tree format, showing their hierarchical relationship.

pstree

• This command provides a visual representation of the parent-child relationships among processes.

pgrep and pkill Commands

pgrep Command:

• The pgrep command allows you to search for processes by their name.

pgrep <process-name>

• It returns the PID(s) of processes that match the specified name.

pkill Command:

• The pkill command is used to send signals to processes based on their name.

pkill <process-name>

• This command sends a signal to all processes whose names match the specified pattern.

Nice and Renice Commands

nice Command:

• The nice command is used to launch a process with a specified priority (niceness).

nice -n <priority> <command>

renice Command:

• The renice command is used to change the priority of an existing process.

renice <priority> -p <PID>

These tools and commands provide powerful capabilities for managing processes in a Unix environment. They allow users to monitor, terminate, and adjust process priorities as needed.