atop is a command-line utility for monitoring system resources and performance in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It provides real-time information about various aspects of the system, including CPU, memory, disk, and network usage.
To use atop, you can simply run the atop command from the command line. By default, atop will display a summary of system resource usage, including the overall CPU and memory usage, the number of processes, and the amount of network traffic. You can use various options to customize the output and display additional information.
For example, to display detailed information about CPU and memory usage, you can use the -c and -m options:
# atop -c -m
To display detailed information about disk usage, you can use the -d option:
# atop -d
To display detailed information about network usage, you can use the -n option:
# atop -n
atop is a useful tool for monitoring system performance and identifying potential issues. It can help you to diagnose problems with resource utilization, such as CPU or memory bottlenecks, and identify processes that are using a large amount of resources.
To learn more about atop and its available options, you can consult the atop documentation or use the man atop command to view the manual page.
# man atop
If you encounter the below error while running the atop command:
atop: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| OS Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install atop |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install atop |
| Alpine | apk add atop |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install atop |
| Fedora | dnf install atop |
| Raspbian | apt-get install atop |
atop Command Examples
1. To display real-time statistics for the system, simply type atop at the command prompt:
# atop
2. Start and display memory consumption for each process:
# atop -m
3. Start and display disk information:
# atop -d
4. Start and display background process information:
# atop -c
5. Start and display thread-specific resource utilization information:
# atop -y
6. Start and display the number of processes for each user:
# atop -au
7. To display statistics for a specific time period, use the -s and -e options to specify the start and end times, respectively. For example, to display statistics for the past hour, you can use the following command:
# atop -s now-1h -e now
8. To display statistics for a specific process, use the -p option followed by the process ID. For example, to display statistics for the process with ID 1234, you can use the following command:
# atop -p 1234
9. To save the output of atop to a file, use the -w option followed by the file name. For example, to save the output to a file named atop.log, you can use the following command:
# $ atop -w atop.log
10. Display help about interactive commands:
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