How do you manage and monitor processes and resources in CLI?

2 kill and killall

Sometimes, you may need to stop or terminate a process that is not responding or consuming too much resources. The kill command sends a signal to a process identified by its process ID (PID). You can use the ps command to find the PID of a process, or use the pgrep command to search for a process by name. For example, kill 1234 sends the default signal (SIGTERM) to the process with PID 1234, which asks it to terminate gracefully. You can also specify a different signal, such as SIGKILL, which forces the process to quit immediately. The killall command sends a signal to all processes matching a name. For example, killall firefox sends the default signal to all firefox processes.

3 free and df

The free command shows the amount of free and used memory on your system. It displays the total, used, and available memory for the physical RAM, the swap space, and the buffers and cache. You can use the -h option to show the output in human-readable format, with units like MB or GB. The df command shows the disk space usage for each mounted file system. It displays the total, used, and available space, as well as the percentage of usage and the mount point. You can also use the -h option to show the output in human-readable format.

4 ifconfig and ping

The ifconfig command shows the network configuration and status for each network interface on your system. It displays the IP address, netmask, broadcast address, MAC address, and other information for each interface. You can also use the ifconfig command to modify the network settings, such as changing the IP address or enabling or disabling an interface. The ping command tests the connectivity and latency between your system and another host on the network. It sends a series of packets to the specified host and measures the time and success of the response. You can use various options to customize the ping command, such as specifying the number of packets, the size of packets, or the interval between packets.

5 htop and iotop

The htop command is an enhanced version of the top command, with more features and a more user-friendly interface. It shows the dynamic view of the processes, sorted by CPU or memory usage, as well as the overall system load, memory, and swap usage. You can use the mouse or the keyboard to interact with the output, such as sorting, filtering, searching, or killing processes. You can also customize the display options, such as choosing the columns, colors, or meters. The iotop command is similar to the top command, but it shows the disk input and output activity for each process. It displays the read and write speed, as well as the percentage of disk time for each process. You can also use the arrow keys, the space bar, or the o key to navigate and refresh the output, or press q to quit.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?