htop is nothing but Interactive process viewer for FreeBSD based system. It is just like default top command with an additional set of options and better display on the screen. This page shows how to install htop on FreeBSD using command line options.
How to install htop on FreeBSD using pkg
The procedure for installing htop FreeBSD is as follows:
- Open the terminal window.
- For remote FreeBSD server login using ssh command.
- Execute pkg search htop command to search for htop on FreeBSD
- Run sudo pkg install htop to install htop in FreeBSD
Let us see all steps and examples in details.
FreeBSD install htop
It is important that you know how to search for any packages. Therefore type the following command to search for htop package using pkg command:
pkg search htop
Here is what we see:
bashtop-0.9.25_1 Linux/OSX/FreeBSD resource monitor htop-3.0.2 Better top(1) - interactive process viewer
Find information about htop package
Run the following command:
pkg search -f htop
Sample outputs:
WWW: https://github.com/aristocratos/bashtop htop-3.0.2 Name : htop Version : 3.0.2 Origin : sysutils/htop Architecture : FreeBSD:12:amd64 Prefix : /usr/local Repository : FreeBSD [pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/quarterly] Categories : sysutils Licenses : GPLv2 Maintainer : gaod@hychen.org WWW : https://htop.dev/ Comment : Better top(1) - interactive process viewer Options : LSOF : on Annotations : FreeBSD_version: 1201000 Flat size : 164KiB Pkg size : 67.0KiB Description : htop is an enhanced version of top, the interactive process viewer, which can display the list of processes in a tree form. Comparison between 'htop' and 'top' * In 'htop' you can scroll the list vertically and horizontally to see all processes and full command lines. * In 'top' you are subject to a delay for each unassigned key you press (especially annoying when multi-key escape sequences are triggered by accident). * 'htop' starts faster ('top' seems to collect data for a while before displaying anything). * In 'htop' you don't need to type the process number to kill a process, in 'top' you do. * In 'htop' you don't need to type the process number or the priority value to renice a process, in 'top' you do. * In 'htop' you can kill multiple processes at once. * 'top' is older, hence, more tested. WWW: https://htop.dev/
Installing htop on FreeBSD
First, make sure you system is up to date (see how to install sudo on FreeBSD or use the su - command to gain root access):
sudo pkg update
sudo pkg upgrade
Finally, run the following to install htop on FreeBSD:
sudo pkg install htop
Installing htop on FreeBSD
How to use htop command
The syntax is as follows:
htop
htop [options]
htop [options] arg
htop in action
One can use a monochrome color scheme, run:
htop -C
htop --no-color
Want to see the tree view by default when running htop? Try:
htop -t
htop --tree
Let us see only processes of a given user named vivek:
htop -u vivek
htop --user=vivek
htop --user=nginx
Limit and show process for only the given PIDs:
htop -p PID
htop -p PID1,PID2
--pid=PID,[,PID,PID...]
htop -p 1342
htop -p 7435,1367
FreeBSD htop keyboard shortcut keys
The following commands are supported while in htop:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Up arrow key | Select (highlight) the previous process in the process list. Scroll the list if necessary. |
| Down arrow key | Select (highlight) the next process in the process list. Scroll the list if necessary. |
| Left arrow key | Scroll the process list left. |
| Right arrow key | Scroll the process list right. |
| PgUp, PgDn | Scroll the process list up or down one window. |
| Home | Scroll to the top of the process list and select the first process. |
| End | Scroll to the bottom of the process list and select the last process. |
| s | Trace process system calls: if strace(1) is installed, pressing this key will attach it to the currently selected process, presenting a live update of system calls issued by the process. |
| l | Display open files for a process: if lsof(1) is installed, pressing this key will display the list of file descriptors opened by the process. |
Other keyboard shortcuts
| u | Show only processes owned by a specified user. |
| M | Sort by memory usage (top compatibility key). |
| P | Sort by processor usage (top compatibility key). |
| T | Sort by time (top compatibility key). |
| F | “Follow” process: if the sort order causes the currently selected process to move in the list, make the selection bar follow it. This is useful for monitoring a process: this way, you can keep a process always visible on screen. When a movement key is used, “follow” loses effect. |
| K | Hide kernel threads: prevent the threads belonging the kernel to be displayed in the process list. (This is a toggle key.) |
| H | Hide user threads: on systems that represent them differently than ordinary processes (such as recent NPTL-based systems), this can hide threads from userspace processes in the process list. (This is a toggle key.) |
| p | Show full paths to running programs, where applicable. (This is a toggle key.) |
| Ctrl-L | Rfresh the screen. |
| F1 | See this help menu. |
How to get help about htop
Simply pass the --help option. For example:
htop --help
man htop
Conclusion
This page showed you how to install and use htop on FreeBSD Unix server. It has many more option. Hence, see the htop home page or read man page.
This entry is 2 of 13 in the htop Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:
- OpenBSD install htop
- FreeBSD install htop
- Ubuntu Linux install htop
- RHEL 8 install htop
- macOS install htop
- Alpine Linux install htop
- pfSense install htop
- CentOS/RHEL: Install htop An Interactive Text-mode Process Viewer
- Amazon Linux AMI nstall htop
- Install htop on CentOS 8
- OpenSUSE Linux install htop
- Debian Linux install htop
- Arch Linux install htop
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