Observing processes

Articles

• System monitoring: where to start when the server is slow — The order of checks for "the server is slow": CPU, memory, disk, kernel and network — what shows each resource.
• Processes — Viewing processes, signals and priorities; finding the processes that hog CPU or memory.
• ps — list processes — The ps command lists running processes with PID, owner, state, CPU and memory use, and the command line.
• top — processes and load in real time — The top program refreshes the process list, CPU load, memory and load average every few seconds.
• pgrep — find a process PID by name — The pgrep command prints the PIDs of processes by name or command line, owner and parent — no ps or grep needed.