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This introduces an initial platform for extracting metrics using the PCP performance metrics API - PMAPI(3). It can be used via the --enable-pcp=yes configure option. So far I've added support for live localhost metrics only, and only using pre-defined metrics already found in htop. If available, all sampling is performed by pmcd(1) - else, we fallback to htop doing the metric sampling itself (all below the PMAPI). When pmcd is used, it may be configured to run children with elevated privileges, so htop does not need to be setuid (authentication with pmcd is available). Additionally, the PMAPI allows us to support archives (for historical analysis and for automated regression tests in htop). We'll need platform-specific command line argument additions, which isn't yet feasible in htop (not difficult to add though). The goal of this first version is minimal impact in terms of modifying the htop codebase, to introduce key ideas in PCP (metric namespace, metadata, APIs and so on) and give us something to discuss, experiment with and build on.
Introduction
htop is a cross-platform interactive process viewer.
htop allows scrolling the list of processes vertically and horizontally to see their full command lines and related information like memory and CPU consumption.
The information displayed is configurable through a graphical setup and can be sorted and filtered interactively.
Tasks related to processes (e.g. killing and renicing) can be done without entering their PIDs.
Running htop requires ncurses libraries (typically named libncursesw*).
For more information and details on how to contribute to htop visit htop.dev.
Build instructions
This program is distributed as a standard GNU autotools-based package.
Compiling htop requires the header files for ncurses (libncursesw*-dev). Install these and other required packages for C development from your package manager.
Then, when compiling from a release tarball, run:
./configure && make
Alternatively, for compiling sources downloaded from the Git repository (git clone or downloads from Github releases),
install the header files for ncurses (libncursesw*-dev) and other required development packages from your distribution's package manager. Then run:
./autogen.sh && ./configure && make
By default make install will install into /usr/local, for changing the path use ./configure --prefix=/some/path.
Build Options
htop has several build-time options to enable/disable additional features.
Generic
--enable-unicode: enable Unicode support dependency: libncursesw default: yes--enable-hwloc: enable hwloc support for CPU affinity; disables Linux affinity dependency: libhwloc default: no--enable-static: build a static htop binary; hwloc and delay accounting are not supported default: no--enable-debug: Enable asserts and internal sanity checks; implies a performance penalty default: no
Linux
--enable-sensors: enable libsensors(3) support for reading temperature data dependencies: libsensors-dev(build-time), at runtime libsensors is loaded viadlopen(3)if available default: check--enable-capabilities: enable Linux capabilities support dependency: libcap default: check--with-proc: location of a Linux-compatible proc filesystem default: /proc--enable-openvz: enable OpenVZ support default: no--enable-vserver: enable VServer support default: no--enable-ancient-vserver: enable ancient VServer support (implies--enable-vserver) default: no--enable-linux-affinity: enable Linuxsched_setaffinity(2)andsched_getaffinity(2)for affinity support; conflicts with hwloc default: check--enable-delayacct: enable Linux delay accounting support dependencies: pkg-config(build-time), libnl-3 and libnl-genl-3 default: check
Usage
See the manual page (man htop) or the on-line help ('F1' or 'h' inside htop) for a list of supported key commands.
Support
If you have trouble running htop please consult your Operating System / Linux distribution documentation for getting support and filing bugs.
Bugs, development feedback
We have a development mailing list. Feel free to subscribe for release announcements or asking questions on the development of htop.
You can also join our IRC channel #htop on freenode and talk to the developers there.
If you have found an issue with the source of htop, please check whether this has already been reported in our Github issue tracker. If not, please file a new issue describing the problem you have found, the location in the source code you are referring to and a possible fix.
History
htop was invented, developed and maintained by Hisham Muhammad from 2004 to 2019. His legacy repository has been archived to preserve the history.
In 2020 a team took over the development amicably and continues to maintain htop collaboratively.
License
GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL-2.0)