htop

# [![htop logo](htop-logo.png)](https://htop.dev)

[![CI](https://github.com/htop-dev/htop/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/htop-dev/htop/actions)
[![Coverity Scan Build Status](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/21665/badge.svg)](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/21665)
[![Mailing List](https://img.shields.io/badge/Mailing%20List-htop-blue.svg)](https://groups.io/g/htop)
[![IRC #htop](https://img.shields.io/badge/IRC-htop-blue.svg)](https://web.libera.chat/#htop)
[![GitHub Release](https://img.shields.io/github/release/htop-dev/htop.svg)](https://github.com/htop-dev/htop/releases/latest)
[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/tiny-repos/htop.svg)](https://repology.org/project/htop/versions)
[![License: GPL v2+](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-GPL%20v2+-blue.svg)](COPYING?raw=true)

![Screenshot of htop](docs/images/screenshot.png?raw=true)

## Introduction

`htop` is a cross-platform interactive process viewer.

`htop` allows scrolling the list of processes vertically and horizontally to see their full command lines and related information like memory and CPU consumption.
Also system wide information, like load average or swap usage, is shown.

The information displayed is configurable through a graphical setup and can be sorted and filtered interactively.

Tasks related to processes (e.g. killing and renicing) can be done without entering their PIDs.

Running `htop` requires `ncurses` libraries, typically named libncurses(w).

`htop` is written in C.

For more information and details visit [htop.dev](https://htop.dev).

## Usage
See the manual page (`man htop`) or the help menu (`h` or `F1` inside `htop`) for a list of supported key commands.

### Quick Start

Some common actions to get you started with `htop`

- Search processes: press `/`
- Filter processes: press `\`
- Toggle tree view: press `t`
- Change process sort column: press `.`
- Kill a process: select the process and press `k`

## Build instructions

### Prerequisite
List of build-time dependencies:
  * standard GNU autotools-based C toolchain
    - C99 compliant compiler
    - `autoconf`
    - `automake`
    - `autotools`
  * `ncurses`

**Note about `ncurses`:**
> `htop` requires `ncurses` 6.0. Be aware the appropriate package is sometimes still called libncurses5 (on Debian/Ubuntu). Also `ncurses` usually comes in two flavours:
>* With Unicode support.
>* Without Unicode support.
>
> This is also something that is reflected in the package name on Debian/Ubuntu (via the additional 'w' - 'w'ide character support).

List of additional build-time dependencies (based on feature flags):
*  `pkg-config`
*  `sensors`
*  `hwloc`
*  `libcap` (v2.21 or later)
*  `libnl-3` and `libnl-genl-3`

`pkg-config` is optional but recommended. The configure script of `htop` might utilize `pkg-config` to obtain the compiler and linker flags required for a library. Some OS distributions provide `pkg-config` functionalities through an alternative implementation such as `pkgconf`.