this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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Always thought top was one of those programs frozen in time since the 70s, but apparently, it has a feature set comparable to htop and the like. The default configuration just doesn't show much of it...

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Underappreciated top

That was my nickname in college.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 18 points 1 day ago

As a bottom, I appreciate all 12 tops that exist at any given time.

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Top is really versatile, but I still love my btop.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago

I was introduced to btop by my Steam Deck. It is quite nice.

[–] thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Very cool, thanks. I migrated from top to htop a while ago and never looked back, but I occasionally have to use machines that don't have htop so it might be time to get familiar with the default tooling.

Why do they say that SIGKILL bad practice? I use it as the second tap if a SIGTERM doesn't knock something out. The link in the article is 404ing.

[–] loweffortname@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

SIGKILL is a good way to orphan children. Or end a DB transaction without properly closing it (so the server socket stays open, or the transaction lock isn't released...) It exists for a reason, but docs usually caution against it because it can cause unexpected behaviors.

[–] Gutek8134@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Eh, system will take care of the orphans

[–] loweffortname@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Turning them into Zombies is certainly a way of dealing with orphans, sure...

[–] Gutek8134@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

New decoration idea for Halloween: orphaned zombie processes

[–] loweffortname@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 hours ago

Just some numbers with a Z next to them...

[–] thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ah makes sense. Thanks!

[–] Excel@beehaw.org 1 points 13 hours ago

Defaults matter