top Command Reference: Flags, Batch Mode & CI Examples

top shows a live, ordered view of process CPU and memory use.

top displays system load and the busiest processes, refreshing continuously. In CI you run it in batch mode so it produces a finite, parseable snapshot instead of an interactive screen.

Common flags and usage

-b: batch mode (non-interactive, scriptable)
-n <N>: number of refresh iterations
-d <secs>: delay between iterations
-o <field>: sort by a column (e.g. %MEM)
-p <pid>: restrict to specific processes

Example

shell

top -b -n1 -o %MEM | head -20

In CI

Interactive top hangs a non-TTY job, so always use -b -n1 (or a small -n loop) to capture a snapshot to the log. For sampling over time, top -b -n10 -d2 records ten samples two seconds apart while a heavy step runs.

Key takeaways

top -b -n1 gives a parseable, finite snapshot for CI.
Never run interactive top in a non-TTY job.
A small -n/-d loop samples resource use over time.

Related guides

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