Today's article is about one of my favorite applications...

[KGIII]

Your computer came with top. If you're lucky, it also came with htop. If it didn't come with htop, you can certainly install it. It's basically top, except easier and more useful. You can even use your mouse!

Let's Learn About The htop System Monitor • Linux Tips

There are any number of tools out there to monitor your system and today we'll cover the 'htop' system monitor.

linux-tips.us

If you want a task manager and system monitor in the terminal, or if you need one, htop is a great option. I may cover some of the other top alternatives, but this is my favorite.

 

[bob466]

Another good article...I have both...don't use them often but very handy to have.

 

[KGIII]

but very handy to have.

It's great when you need it, like when your desktop is having issues so you switch to TTY to nuke a hung process or whatnot. Though, in that mode, the mouse doesn't work.

 

[osprey]

It's great when you need it, like when your desktop is having issues so you switch to TTY to nuke a hung process or whatnot. Though, in that mode, the mouse doesn't work.

The gpm program enables the mouse to cut and paste in virtual consoles. Very reliable here.

 

[KGIII]

The gpm program enables the mouse to cut and paste in virtual consoles. Very reliable here.

Huh... I guess I hadn't tried it in a long time. I know for a fact that it didn't work the last time I tried but now that I think about it, I just kind of assumed it hadn't changed.

That's good to know. That's awesome, in fact. I'm 100% confident that it didn't work when I last tried. I don't think I've tried in ages. I just assumed it still didn't work. I wonder how long it has worked with a mouse?!?

 

[osprey]

Huh... I guess I hadn't tried it in a long time. I know for a fact that it didn't work the last time I tried but now that I think about it, I just kind of assumed it hadn't changed.

That's good to know. That's awesome, in fact. I'm 100% confident that it didn't work when I last tried. I don't think I've tried in ages. I just assumed it still didn't work. I wonder how long it has worked with a mouse?!?

In the past I've had trouble with gpm failing to run on an earlier debian installation but I can't remember which one. It also had trouble on an older laptop. Today however, it's fine on desktop machines here and laptops, the laptops all being recent models of no more than 3 years old ... Lenovo Thinkpads.

 

[blunix]

do you know about atop, which keeps a record of the top data every $interval (default i think is 5 minutes, but i like to set it to 30 seconds).

While your common monitoring system can tell you that there was load 5 hours ago, atop can tell you which process(es) caused the load

Its basically like top and htop but you can travel back in time.

 

[KGIII]

do you know about atop, which keeps a record of the top data every $interval (default i think is 5 minutes, but i like to set it to 30 seconds).

Indeed. If I cover another top-like application in the near term, it'll likely be that one.

Today however, it's fine on desktop machines here and laptops, the laptops all being recent models of no more than 3 years old ...

I tested it here twice and it works just fine. Amazing! I'm 100% certain that I've tried this before and it didn't work. I guess I just never tried to use the mouse after that, not expecting it to work.

I should probably edit the article to include this information. It's 23:00 and past my bedtime, so that's going to not happen immediately.

As an aside, about half of Maine is without power. Somehow we managed to escape it. Normally, I'm in a high-wind zone, we're the first to go down. So, I'm pretty amazed that I'm even online. Any other Mainers are southern and on the coast. They're almost certainly without power.