How to sort with memory/CPU in top command in Linux or Unix?

In this post, we will see how to sort memory and CPU usage in top command output in Linux.


Shift+F to open menu –> Press s to select –> Press Enter to save –> Press ESC to close this menu

 

1. Run top command and below menu will open.

# top
top - 02:05:10 up 11 days, 11:18,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks: 429 total,   1 running, 428 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.9 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem : 37.7/26389670+[                                                                                                   ]
KiB Swap:  0.0/13421772+[                                                                                                   ]

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 2343 root      20   0 9015788  42044   3208 S   1.3  0.0  63:31.60 automount
31872 saketj    20   0  144300   2348   1420 R   0.7  0.0   0:05.37 top
 2378 root      20   0 3105884  53876  14668 S   0.3  0.0  30:40.69 containerd
    1 root      20   0  191140   6244   2432 S   0.0  0.0   5:15.00 systemd
    2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.69 kthreadd
    3 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0  0.0   0:04.51 ksoftirqd/0
    8 root      rt   0       0      0      0 S   0.0  0.0   0:01.83 migration/0

 

2. Press “Shift+F” to open menu.
s to sort the entries and then select the value with which you want to sort the entries.

Fields Management for window 1:Def, whose current sort field is RES
   Navigate with Up/Dn, Right selects for move then  or Left commits,
   'd' or  toggles display, 's' sets sort.  Use 'q' or  to end!

* PID     = Process Id             SWAP    = Swapped Size (KiB)
* USER    = Effective User Name    CODE    = Code Size (KiB)
* PR      = Priority               DATA    = Data+Stack (KiB)
* NI      = Nice Value             nMaj    = Major Page Faults
* VIRT    = Virtual Image (KiB)    nMin    = Minor Page Faults
* RES     = Resident Size (KiB)    nDRT    = Dirty Pages Count
* SHR     = Shared Memory (KiB)    WCHAN   = Sleeping in Function
* S       = Process Status         Flags   = Task Flags 
* %CPU    = CPU Usage              CGROUPS = Control Groups
* %MEM    = Memory Usage (RES)     SUPGIDS = Supp Groups IDs
* TIME+   = CPU Time, hundredths   SUPGRPS = Supp Groups Names
* COMMAND = Command Name/Line      TGID    = Thread Group Id
  PPID    = Parent Process pid     ENVIRON = Environment vars
  UID     = Effective User Id      vMj     = Major Faults delta
  RUID    = Real User Id           vMn     = Minor Faults delta
  RUSER   = Real User Name         USED    = Res+Swap Size (KiB)
  SUID    = Saved User Id          nsIPC   = IPC namespace Inode
  SUSER   = Saved User Name        nsMNT   = MNT namespace Inode
  GID     = Group Id               nsNET   = NET namespace Inode
  GROUP   = Group Name             nsPID   = PID namespace Inode
  PGRP    = Process Group Id       nsUSER  = USER namespace Inode
  TTY     = Controlling Tty        nsUTS   = UTS namespace Inode
  TPGID   = Tty Process Grp Id
  SID     = Session Id
  nTH     = Number of Threads
  P       = Last Used Cpu (SMP)
  TIME    = CPU Time

 

3. Now the output is sorted.

top - 02:07:00 up 11 days, 11:20,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks: 430 total,   1 running, 429 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem : 37.7/26389670+[                                                                                                   ]
KiB Swap:  0.0/13421772+[                                                                                                   ]

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
  662 root      20   0  292136 178320 169732 S   0.0  0.1   4:33.27 systemd-journal
 2341 root      20   0 4883012  97856  25504 S   0.0  0.0  15:05.37 dockerd
 2016 root      20   0  734036  83832  82916 S   0.0  0.0   2:29.83 rsyslogd
 2378 root      20   0 3105884  53924  14668 S   0.3  0.0  30:41.00 containerd
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