How to install htop on OpenSUSE Linux using zypper

Author: Vivek Gite Last updated: September 30, 2020 1 comment

I am a new sysadmin of OpenSUSE Linux operating system. How do I install htop on OpenSUSE using the zypper command?

htop is nothing but Interactive process viewer for OpenSUSE Linux cloud server or desktop 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 OpenSUSE using command line options.

How to install htop on OpenSUSE using zypper

The procedure for installing htop OpenSUSE is as follows:

Open the terminal window.
For remote OpenSUSE server login using ssh command. For example, vivek@server1.cyberciti.biz
Execute zypper search htop command to search for htop on OpenSUSE
Run sudo zypper install htop to install htop in OpenSUSE

Let us see all commands and examples in details to install htop on OpenSUSE.

Please note that nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ is my shell prompt. You need to type all commands after that prompt.

OpenSUSE 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 zypper command:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ zypper search htop
Sample outputs:

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name | Summary                                           | Type   
--+------+---------------------------------------------------+--------
  | htop | An Interactive text-mode Process Viewer for Linux | package

Find information about htop package

Run the following command:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ zypper info htop
Sample outputs:

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
 
 
Information for package htop:
-----------------------------
Repository     : Main Repository
Name           : htop
Version        : 2.2.0-lp152.3.6
Arch           : x86_64
Vendor         : openSUSE
Installed Size : 215.0 KiB
Installed      : No
Status         : not installed
Source package : htop-2.2.0-lp152.3.6.src
Summary        : An Interactive text-mode Process Viewer for Linux
Description    : 
    htop is an interactive text-mode process viewer for Linux. It aims to be a
    better 'top' and requires ncurses.

Installing htop on OpenSUSE

First, make sure you system is up to date:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ sudo zypper ref nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ sudo zypper update
Finally, run the following to install htop on OpenSUSE:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ sudo zypper install htop

Install htop on OpenSUSE Linux using zypper command

Installing htop on OpenSUSE Linux

How to use htop command

The syntax is:
htop htop [options] htop [options] arg

htop in action

Press F10 or q to quit htop session.

One can use a monochrome color scheme, run:

nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -C htop --no-color

Want to see the tree view by default when running htop? Try:

nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -t nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop --tree
Let us see only processes of a given user named nixcraft:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -u nixcraft nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop --user=nixcraft nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop --user=mysql
Limit and show process for only the given PIDs:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -p PID nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -p PID1,PID2 nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop --pid=PID,[,PID,PID...] nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -p 3214 nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop -p 4851,4272

OpenSUSE 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 to the htop command. For example:
nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ htop --help nixcraft@opensuse-aws-vm:~$ man htop

Conclusion

This page showed you how to install and use htop on OpenSUSE Linux server or desktop. It has many more option. Hence, see the htop home page online here or read man page using the man command.

This entry is 11 of 13 in the htop Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

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