How to see statistical information about how Linux is currently handling your memory,swap and processes

Open a new Terminal Window if not already in command line.
Type in the ‘top‘ command.
Now a list of processes will appear as below.
top – 09:38:39 up 1:09, 2 users, load average: 0.43, 0.29, 0.29
Tasks: 165 total,   2 running, 163 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 4.5%us, 3.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 92.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem:   1974152k total, 1622216k used,   351936k free,    68908k buffers
Swap: 2493588k total,        0k used, 2493588k free, 1040980k cached
PID    USER      PR NI VIRT   RES SHR S   %CPU %MEM    TIME+ COMMAND
3652 root           20   0   412m 96m 51m S    9            5.0    9:05.48 Xorg
There are a number of interactive controls with can be used together with the ‘top‘ command, including Killing processes and changing the priorities of processes.
- For example killing processes use the K key and then type in the process idwhich you wish to kill.
Type in the following command to find out more about the top command: man top

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