Top vs ps command

Top Command

Top command is used for displaying top CPU processes which are currently live.
It periodically updates the selection of processes and displays it.

It is similar to Windows Task Manager in Windows.

Line 1 time, users load averagzombiee.

Line 2 total tasks, how many of them are running, stopped or zombie

Line 3 CPU usuage

Line 4 Memory Analysys

Highlight the running process by pressing z.

Kill a task: Press k - to kill a task and then PID 

Example: 3290 is PID of docky.

                Press k then PID : 3290

Learn more about top: $man top

ps command

ps (process status) command gives a snapshot of the current processes.

Example: $ps -ef    ---->to see all processes

             

Column 1 UID - user id

Column 2 PID - process id

Column 3 PPID - parent process id

Column 4 TTY - gives the name of the terminal connected to the standard input

Learn more about ps: $man ps

Zombie processes are those processes which have finished the execution and have released all the resources but still had an entry in the process table.

Example: $ps aux   ----> snapshot of all the processes will come and processes with STAT "z" are zombie processes