htop is an interactive process monitoring and system management tool designed for Linux, macOS, BSD, and other Unix-like operating systems. It provides a real-time, color-coded interface for viewing system performance, running processes, CPU usage, memory consumption, and other critical system metrics. Unlike traditional command-line monitoring tools, htop offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface with mouse support, customizable views, and interactive controls. Users can easily search, sort, filter, and manage processes without needing to memorize process IDs or complex commands. The platform supports vertical and horizontal scrolling, allowing users to inspect full command lines and detailed process information with ease. As an open-source project written in C, htop is widely used by system administrators, developers, and power users for efficient system monitoring and troubleshooting.

Features

  • Real-Time Process Monitoring – Displays live information about running processes, CPU usage, memory consumption, and system load.
  • Interactive Process Management – Allows users to kill, renice, and manage processes directly from the interface without entering PIDs manually.
  • Advanced Search and Filtering – Quickly locate specific processes using built-in search and filtering capabilities.
  • Customizable Interface – Supports configurable columns, meters, colors, layouts, and display options to match user preferences.
  • Tree View Visualization – Shows parent-child process relationships in a hierarchical tree structure for easier process analysis.
  • Cross-Platform Support – Runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Solaris, and other Unix-like systems.

Project Samples

Project Activity

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License

GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2)

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User Ratings

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User Reviews

  • Excellent software - and the author is a nice guy (check out his old blogs from gobolinux too!)
  • The best real-time system behavior tool that any linux admin should be using.
  • Htop works great.
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • Htop is good! Thanks.
    1 user found this review helpful.
  • better top +1, htop thanks!
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Additional Project Details

Operating Systems

Linux

Intended Audience

Developers, End Users/Desktop, System Administrators

User Interface

Curses/Ncurses

Programming Language

C

Related Categories

C Systems Administration Software

Registered

2004-05-06