

Processes constantly compete for memory, so it is important to understand how processes use memory and what can be done to optimize their usage. Memory, a finite resource, is a key limitation to any computer system. Monitoring process is one of the numerous tasks of a Linux server system administrator, in this tip, we looked at how you list processes on your system and sort them according to RAM and CPU use in descendant form using the ps utility.Processes are the fundamental building blocks of a Linux operating system, and understanding how they use memory is key to managing a system’s resources and performance. To add other fields to the output, or change the sort criteria, refer to the OUTPUT FORMAT CONTROL section in the man page of ps command.ĭon’t Miss: Find Top 15 Processes by Memory Usage with ‘top’ in Batch Modeĭon’t Miss: Find top 10 Directories Disk Size in Linux Summary By default, the output will be sorted in ascendant form, but personally I prefer to reverse that order by adding a minus sign in front of the sort criteria. A favorite of mine is to show the processes’ PIDs ( pid), PPIDs ( pid), the name of the executable file associated with the process ( cmd), and the RAM and CPU utilization ( %mem and %cpu, respectively).Īdditionally, I use -sort to sort by either %mem or %cpu. The -o (or –format) option of ps allows you to specify the output format. The following command will show the list of top processes ordered by RAM and CPU use in descendant form (remove the pipeline and head if you want to see the full list): # ps -eo pid,ppid,cmd,%mem,%cpu -sort=-%mem | headĢ591Ē113 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox 7.3 43.5Ģ549 2520 /usr/lib/virtualbox/Virtual 3.4 8.2Ģ288 1 /home/gacanepa/.dropbox-disđ.4Đ.3ġ889 1543 c:\TeamViewer\TeamViewer.exđ.0Đ.2Ģ254Ē252 python /usr/bin/linuxmint/mĐ.3Đ.0ġ645đ595 /usr/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -autĐ.3Ē.5īrief explanation of above options used in above command. Check Top Processes sorted by RAM or CPU Usage in Linux That said, let’s dive in and get started. Find Linux Processes By RAM and CPU Usage Continually adding commands to your own knowledge base is just as important.įor that reason, in this article we will share a trick to find out, which processes are consuming lots of Memory and CPU utilization in Linux. Part of automating your tasks, is learning how to get a script do what you would have to do yourself otherwise. Thus, they don’t have to babysit their servers and can use their time to learn new technologies and always stay at the top of their game. The reason is not that they’re not doing their job or wasting their time – it is mostly because they have automated a good deal of their routine tasks.


I remember once reading that efficient system administrators are lazy people.
