Fun with htop

[DRAFT] Last updated by Joe Schaefer on Fri, 22 May 2026    source

 

Advanced htop Features on Popular Unix Platforms

• Deltas from top

  • sophisticated interactive behaviors
  • thematic, semantic color schemes
  • operates at the POSIX thread level, not just full processes

• Features

  • customize display C
  • search / or filter \ lightweight processes (LWP, aka pthreads) by name
  • filter LWP by user name u
  • toggle t tree view
  • per-LWP commands
    • s system trace
    • l list of open file descriptors
    • e environment variables
    • k send a signal with kill

Linux

OOTB fully operational feature-set.

OSX Port

• Enable DTrace (requires boot into Recovery Mode to disable SIP)
• copy dtruss-htop to ~/bin and execute to create strace symlink
• launch htop as root

Solaris 11 / FreeBSD Ports

• ZFS ARC statistics
• Zone Name / ID columns
• Solaris LWP Accounting Deltas
  • bi-level PID + LWPID
  • does not provide full command arguments, just command name