Monitoring the performance of your Raspberry Pi is crucial for maintaining a stable system. Learn how to check processes and RAM usage using the top command.

The top command is an essential tool for monitoring the CPU, memory, and processes running on your Raspberry Pi. This article will teach you how to use this command to check Raspberry Pi processes and …


Updated August 16, 2023

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The top command is an essential tool for monitoring the CPU, memory, and processes running on your Raspberry Pi. This article will teach you how to use this command to check Raspberry Pi processes and RAM usage.

To use the top command, simply open your terminal and type top followed by Enter:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ top

The output will display several columns of information, including process ID (PID), user, CPU utilization (%CPU), memory usage (%MEM), and the command associated with each process. The top line shows system-wide statistics such as total processes, running/sleeping tasks, and load average:

top - 14:27:35 up  1:08,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks:   2 total,   1 running,   1 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   382.6 total,    57.0 free,   149.7 used,   175.9 buff/cache
MiB Swap:    0.0 total,    0.0 free,    0.0 used.   324.6 avail Mem

You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to interact with the top command:

  • q: Quit the program
  • h: Display help information
  • M: Sort processes by memory usage
  • P: Sort processes by CPU utilization (%CPU)
  • 1: Show individual CPU utilization for each core
  • c: Display or hide command line arguments

To filter the output and display only processes related to a specific user, use the -u flag followed by the username:

top -u pi

This will show all processes running under the “pi” account. To monitor RAM usage specifically, look at the %MEM column in the top command output. High memory utilization can indicate a resource leak or a process consuming too much memory. If you need to free up RAM, consider terminating unused processes or restarting your Raspberry Pi.

In summary, the top command is an essential tool for monitoring the performance of your Raspberry Pi and identifying potential bottlenecks or issues. Regularly checking CPU and memory usage can help you maintain a stable system and optimize resource utilization.