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| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Binary | htop |
| Config | ~/.config/htop/htoprc (written by htop on exit; also editable via F2 in-session) |
| Logs | No persistent logs — output to terminal |
| Type | Interactive terminal UI |
| Install | apt install htop (Debian/Ubuntu) / dnf install htop (RHEL/Fedora) |
Key Operations
| Task | Command |
|------|---------|
| Launch | htop |
| Launch for specific user | htop -u <username> |
| Quit | q or F10 |
| Help | ? or F1 |
| Setup (columns, colors, meters) | F2 |
| Search process | F3 or / |
| Filter by string | \ (backslash) |
| Sort by column | F6 then select column |
| Tree view toggle | F5 or t |
| Kill process | F9 (opens signal selector) |
| Renice (lower priority) | F7 (decrease nice — higher priority) |
| Renice (raise priority) | F8 (increase nice — lower priority) |
| Follow selected process | F (cursor tracks the process as it moves) |
| Namespace filter | N (toggle showing kernel threads) |
| Collapse/expand tree node | Space |
Common Failures
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---------|-------|-----|
| htop: command not found | Not installed (unlike top, htop is optional) | apt install htop or dnf install htop; top is always available as fallback |
| htoprc causes strange display on new machine | Config was copied from a different terminal/size | Delete ~/.config/htop/htoprc and relaunch to regenerate |
| F9 kills with wrong signal | Default is SIGTERM (15); process may need SIGKILL | In the F9 signal menu, navigate to SIGKILL (9) and press Enter |
| Process tree shows many {process} threads | Normal for multi-threaded apps (glibc thread names) | Press H to hide userland threads, or K to hide kernel threads |
| Filter (\) doesn't match expected process | Filter is case-sensitive substring, not a regex | Type a shorter substring; for regex use ps aux | grep externally |
| strace shortcut (F4 in some versions) unavailable | htop version < 3 or strace not installed | Use strace -p <pid> from a separate terminal instead |
| Colors absent or broken | Terminal TERM variable wrong | TERM=xterm-256color htop or set in shell profile |
Pain Points
topis always available; htop may not be: on minimal installs or containers,htopis absent.topis POSIX-required. Keeptopusage in mind for scripts or unfamiliar hosts.- htoprc is fragile if edited by hand: the config format is a mix of key=value and list sections. Hand-editing can corrupt the file silently — htop will just reset to defaults. Use F2 in-session instead.
- F4 is a filter in htop, not strace: older documentation and muscle memory from other tools may expect F4 to do something else. In htop,
\is the recommended filter key; F4 was mapped differently in older versions. - F9 defaults to SIGTERM: killing a frozen process requires navigating to SIGKILL (9) in the signal menu. SIGTERM won't stop an unresponsive process.
- Process tree mixes threads and processes: by default, htop shows kernel threads and userland threads alongside processes. Press
Hto hide userland threads andKto hide kernel threads for a cleaner view. -uflag shows only one user's processes: useful for multi-tenant systems, but easy to forget you're filtered — the header shows no indication of the active user filter.
References
See references/ for:
cheatsheet.md— 10 task-organized patternsdocs.md— official documentation links