htop

Author: Hisham Muhammad
Alternative to: top
Language: C
This page last updated:

htop improves on top with a full-screen color display, vertical and horizontal scrolling through the process list, and the ability to kill or renice a process without typing its PID. The header shows per-core CPU meters, memory and swap bars, and system load averages at a glance.

htop showing processes with CPU and memory meters
htop showing processes with CPU and memory meters

The interface is fully interactive: press / to search processes, \ to filter, t to toggle tree view, and F6 to change the sort column. Mouse clicks work throughout. A built-in setup screen lets you customize colors, choose which meters to show, and configure display options without editing config files.

htop runs on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, and Solaris. Originally written by Hisham Muhammad, it is now maintained by the htop-dev team.

Basic usage

htop              # Launch the interactive process viewer.
htop -u username  # Show only processes for a specific user.
htop -p 1234,5678 # Monitor specific PIDs only.