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A Detailed Guide to the Unix/Linux `top` Command

April 16, 2020

Liu, An-Chi 劉安齊

¶ TOP Overview

The top command is one of the most fundamental tools on Unix/Linux. It is similar to Windows Task Manager and lets you monitor the execution status of currently running programs. top is also one of the simplest ways to monitor a program: you can use it to observe how much memory and CPU a program consumes, along with many other details. There are many similar tools (such as htop and gtop) which are extended versions. If you’re interested, you can look them up, but for basic needs, top is more than sufficient.

A Concise Guide to Shell Internals and Implementation

January 18, 2020

Liu, An-Chi 劉安齊

¶ Shell Introduction

Whether you are using a local Unix machine, Windows, or connecting to a remote server, you will open a terminal (Terminal). After you log in, the initial screen is a shell, where developers can enter commands to run programs. In a sense, when people say “using the terminal,” they often mean “using the shell,” even though those terms are not originally identical. For more details about shells, see the English Wikipedia page “C shell”.