Lesson 13 / 31
Viewing Processes
Inspect running programs with ps and top, and read PIDs, CPU and memory usage.
Every running program is a process
Each running program gets a unique PID (process ID). The kernel tracks CPU time, memory, and state for every process.
ps aux — a snapshot
ps aux lists all running processes with their PID, CPU%, memory%, and command.
ps aux | head -3Output:
USER PID %CPU %MEM COMMAND root 1 0.0 0.1 /sbin/init alice 842 0.2 1.3 nginx
top — a live view
top refreshes continuously, showing the busiest processes first. Press q to exit.
top