In Unix, how do I check the CPU usage of a job?

Note: If you are concerned about slowing the system down, you can use the nice command to lower your program's priority. For more information about the nice command, at the Unix prompt, enter:

In Unix, you can see CPU usage on a job that is running in a number of ways, as described below:

The time command

If you want to see a grand total of CPU time for a program when it finishes running, you can use the time command. At the Unix prompt, enter:

Replace myprog with the name of the program you are running. The following is an output example for users in the csh or tcsh shells:

The program myprog used 1.406 seconds of user time, 0.042 seconds of system time, and 4.96 seconds of real time. The sum of the user and system times is the total CPU time of the process. The percentage (29.0%) indicates the percentage of the CPU's time that the process used while it ran. The output will appear in a slightly different format when using sh, ksh, or bash, since the time command is not built into those shells.

The ps command

You can also use the Unix command ps. At the Unix prompt, enter:

Replace username with your username. You will see something like the following:

In this example, the "TIME" column shows that the process running Elm has used 22 CPU seconds.

The top command

You may also use the top command. At the Unix prompt, enter:

You will see something similar to the following:

User mmouse is at the top of the list, and the "TIME" column shows that the program desert.exe has used 292 minutes and 20 seconds of CPU time. This is the most interactive way to see CPU usage.

Also see:

• In Unix, how should I submit CPU-intensive jobs?
• In Unix, how do I cancel a batch job?
• In Unix, how can I see my remaining processes from former sessions?
• In Unix, how do I kill another login session remotely?
• In Unix, what is the man command, and how do I use it to read manual pages?