Linux Process Management Commands and Description
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Commands |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
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This command will show you the information about the programs that are currently running on your computer. |
ps aux Shows all running processes |
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This command will lets you see how much of the computers resources (like CPU and memory) are being used and as well as the details about the running programs and processes. |
top Displays real-time process information |
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This command wil allow you to stop the running program by sending it a signal. |
kill 1234 Kills process with PID 1234 |
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This command will stops all the running programs that match a specific name that you will provide. |
killall firefox Kills all Firefox processes |
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This command will let you search for the program and to stop a program based on its name or the other details. |
pkill -9 httpd Forcefully kills the httpd process |
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This command will help you find the program by name or with other attributes and gives you its process ID number. |
pgrep chrome Shows PIDs of Chrome processes |
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This command will sets the priority level of the program that making it more or less important compared to other programs. |
nice -n 10 script.sh
Runs script.sh at lower priority |
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This command will change the priority level of the program that are already running. |
renice -n 5 1234 Changes priority of PID 1234 to 5 |
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jobs |
This command will show you the information about the programs that are running into your current shell session. |
jobs
Lists jobs in the current shell session |
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This command will bring a program that are running in the background or into the foreground. |
fg %1
Brings job 1 to the foreground |
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This command will send the program to run into the background. |
bg %2 Sends job 2 to the background |
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This command will run a program in the background and it will keep it running even after you close the shell session. |
nohup script.sh &
Runs script.sh in background persistently |
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This command will create the virtual terminal session that you can detach and then reattach it to at any time. |
screen
Starts a new screen session |
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This command will display a detailed list of all the running programs on the system including those started by the users. |
ps aux Shows detailed process list |
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This command will manage the system services and the processes into the your system. |
systemctl status nginx Shows status of Nginx service |
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top -H |
This command will show the real time system resource usage like CPU, memory, and the details about running programs in a hierarchical view. |
top -H Displays processes in a tree view |
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This command will displays the system processes into a tree like structures. |
pstree Shows process tree |
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This command will lists open the files and the programs that are using onto them. |
lsof -i Lists open network file descriptors |
Linux Process Management Command Cheat Sheet
On Linux computers there are special commands to control the programs that are running. These commands are called process management commands. With the help of process management commands you can look at the list of the programs that are currently running on your computer. You can also start new programs and run them and stop programs that are already running and make some programs more important than others.
Process management commands help you understand and manage the different programs running on your Linux computer. They allow you to see what’s happening and control the programs as needed.
Table of Content
- What is Linux Process Management?
- Linux Process Management Commands and Description
- FAQs – Linux Process Management Command Cheat Sheet
- What command shows the currently running programs?
- What command stops a running program?
- Can I make important programs run faster? How?
- I closed the terminal but need that program still running. What can I do?
- How can I see what programs are using up too many resources?
- How to find a running program if I don’t know its full name?
- How do I run one program in the background so I can use the terminal for something else?