btop brings CPU, memory, disk, network, and process activity into one terminal dashboard. From its process list, you can filter and sort tasks, inspect process details, view parent-child relationships, pause list updates, and send a signal to a selected process. It is a monitor with a few process controls—not a universal Linux settings panel.
What btop shows in one view
The btop project describes it as a resource monitor for processor, memory, disks, network, and processes. Its panels make it easier to spot a busy resource and then look for activity that may explain it. The dashboard reports system activity; it does not, by itself, diagnose the cause or change general system settings. btop README
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CPU and memory
Use the processor and memory panels for a live view of their usage and statistics. If one looks unusually busy, the process list can help you identify which running tasks to inspect.
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Disks and network
The disk and network panels bring those resource statistics into the same interface, so you can check them without switching to a separate monitor for each category.
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Processes
The process list connects the overview to individual tasks. You can select a process for details, filter the list, change its sorting, or switch to a tree view to see process relationships.
Inspect and manage processes
Find the process you care about
Use filtering to narrow the list and sorting to bring relevant entries into view. Tree mode is useful when you need to understand which process started another. Selecting a process exposes its details; pausing the list stops its updates while you inspect what is on screen.
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Understand the signal action before using it
btop can send a signal to the selected process. A signal may ask a process to stop or may terminate it, depending on the signal and how the process handles it. This is an action on that process, not a general control for Linux services or system settings. Check the selected process and the signal you intend to send before confirming; interrupting the wrong task can lose unsaved work or disrupt an active operation. The project README documents the process controls.
Install btop on your Linux system
The upstream project lists downloadable binaries, distribution packages, and compilation routes. Which package or command is appropriate depends on your distribution and its current repositories, so check your distribution’s package information or the project’s installation instructions rather than assuming a command or version applies everywhere. The README says its statically compiled musl Linux binaries work on kernel releases 2.6.39 and newer; that is the project’s compatibility statement for those binaries, not a guarantee for every distribution build or optional feature. See upstream installation and compatibility information.
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Make the display work in your terminal
Normal graph rendering depends on a UTF-8 locale and a font with the Unicode blocks specified by the project. If characters or graphs appear broken, check those first. The README also warns that wide characters can be problematic in web-based terminals. For a simpler display, btop offers a 16-color TTY mode, available through the --tty option. Terminal requirements are listed in the README.
GPU monitoring is optional
GPU statistics are not part of every btop build: the binary must be built with GPU support. For NVIDIA monitoring, the project specifies an official NVIDIA driver and the nvidia-ml dynamic library. Its documentation describes Intel GPU metrics more narrowly—utilization, power usage, and clock speed—and notes that Intel GPU support and CPU wattage monitoring may require extended capabilities or a setuid bit. These are optional setup considerations; ordinary CPU, memory, disk, network, and process monitoring does not require GPU support. Consult the README for GPU prerequisites.
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Adjust the interface and launch options
You can change configuration options through btop’s UI. Its configuration and log files are stored under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/btop or, when that variable is not used, $HOME/.config/btop. The man page documents command-line options for choosing a config file or theme directory, setting an initial process filter, selecting a preset, changing the update rate, starting in TTY mode, loading the default config, and checking the version. See the btop man page.
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Launch btop using the installation method for your distribution.
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Check the resource panel relevant to your question—CPU, memory, disks, or network—and look at the process list for context.
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Filter or sort the process list, select a task for details, or use tree view to inspect process relationships.
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Open the interface menu to adjust display settings. If rendering is garbled, verify the UTF-8 locale and font glyph support, or try TTY mode.
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