htop

by Hisham Muhammad hisham@gobolinux.org (2004 - 2016)

Introduction

This is htop, an interactive process viewer. It requires ncurses. It is developed primarily on Linux, but we also have code for running under FreeBSD and Mac OS X (help and testing are wanted for these platforms!)

This software has evolved considerably over the years, and is reasonably complete, but there is always room for improvement.

NOTE FROM FORK: Clock frequency and CPU temperature measurement were added for my own use. Given my relative inexperience with C this is intendet for personal use only. If you wish to use it though, please go ahead. Another note; if you wish to change something in this project: all headers files are automatically generated, meaning that if you want to add #define's, variables, etc... you have to add them in what seems like a commented out block in the matching source file. For checking, you can use the below command to generate the header file stand-alone.

./scripts/MakeHeader.py <SOURCE_FILE>

Comparison between htop and classic top

• In htop you can scroll the list vertically and horizontally to see all processes and full command lines.
• In top you are subject to a delay for each unassigned key you press (especially annoying when multi-key escape sequences are triggered by accident).
• htop starts faster (top seems to collect data for a while before displaying anything).
• In htop you don't need to type the process number to kill a process, in top you do.
• In htop you don't need to type the process number or the priority value to renice a process, in top you do.
• In htop you can kill multiple processes at once.
• top is older, hence, more tested.

Compilation instructions

This program is distributed as a standard autotools-based package. See the INSTALL file for detailed instructions.

When compiling from a release tarball, run:

./configure && make

For compiling sources downloaded from the Git repository, run:

./autogen.sh && ./configure && make

By default make install will install into /usr/local, for changing the path use ./configure --prefix=/some/path.

See the manual page (man htop) or the on-line help ('F1' or 'h' inside htop) for a list of supported key commands.

If not all keys work check your curses configuration.

License

GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL-2.0)