Show full process name in top

Question

I'm running a Rails stack on Ubuntu.

When I call ps -AF, I get a descriptive process name set by the Apache module like

00:00:43 Rails: /var/www...

which is really helpful in diagnosing load issues.

But when I call top, the same process shows up simply as

ruby

Is there any way to get the ps -AF process name in top?

score 262 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 23 '18 at 17:50

262

While top is running, you can press c to toggle between showing the process name and the command line. To remember the toggle state for next time, press W to save the current configuration to ~/.toprc.

edited Jul 23 '18 at 17:50

Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy

103
6

answered May 07 '10 at 15:58

Phil Ross

7,279
2
24
19

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered May 07 '10 at 16:04

28

This is more of a general suggestion, than an answer:

Try out htop. It shows the full process name by default and I think it's much easier to use.

answered May 07 '10 at 16:04

Trey Hunner

1,282
10
9

3

great! much better than the raw 'top'. thanks a lot! – Siwei May 17 '13 at 00:32
1

so a word of caution with htop, it is prettier and more flexible, but I've noticed if you leave it running for a long time, it starts to be wrong. I notice if you have the main display sorted by CPU and wait a day or so, and lots of different processes start using different amounts of cpu, it will stop showing the most cpu intensive ones at the top even though that's the current sort order. just something I've noticed over the years. – Stu Dec 18 '22 at 21:49

score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 16 '19 at 18:43

19

top -c -n 1 should give you what you want.

-c: automatically toggles between command line and program name
-n 1: this makes top to exit out immediately without showing the updates every 3 seconds (by default)

answered Feb 16 '19 at 18:43

Jaeyoung Chun

291
2
3

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered May 07 '10 at 16:04

6

When running top type c to toggle command line/process.

answered May 07 '10 at 16:04

user9517

115,471
20
215
297

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 13 '16 at 10:10

1

You could either press c while top is running or use htop. But, if I may, give glances a look as well. It could serve as an alternative.

Glances Home

I use it quite a bit and is really handy!

answered Oct 13 '16 at 10:10

vnay92

111
2

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 30 '22 at 08:03

0

You can also press h to get the full list of commands.

answered Jul 30 '22 at 08:03

Babak Abdolahi

101

Show full process name in top

6 Answers6