How to run ''top'' command 1 time and exit?

Question

Is there any switch to tell top command in order to one time scan the system and do not monitor it all time?

if you want to know something about a command, first read the man page of corresponding command (man command). — Avinash Raj, Jun 17 '14 at 11:39

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '14 at 12:21

38

The -n switch is what you search:

user@host:~$ top -n 1

See the manpage

   -n : Number of iterations limit as:  -n number
        Specifies the maximum number of iterations, or frames, top should produce before ending.

If you want to stop top command just press q.

Notice: If you tend to use top in a script, I need to say top is not meant for scripts, use ps instead.

edited Jun 17 '14 at 12:21

Pandya

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answered Jun 17 '14 at 11:35

chaos

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I am using top in a script because I think ps is not capable to read CPU load average. Am I wrong? – Sopalajo de Arrierez Dec 12 '15 at 23:44

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 06 '17 at 09:41

notice that if you would like to keep "top" command for a script, you could use -b option ("-b" option means "batch mode operation"), this option allows you to redirect the output into a file.

Examples:

top one shoot batch mode : top -bn 1 2>&1 1> /tmp/topN
top sorted by memory usage one shoot batch mode : top -ban 1 2>&1 1> /tmp/topAN

How to run ''top'' command 1 time and exit?

2 Answers2

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