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Linux & the Command Line
Processes
ps aux lists every running process. top
shows a live, auto-refreshing view of what's using CPU and memory right
now.
Example: finding and stopping a specific process
$ ps aux | grep python
$ kill 4821The grep filters ps's full output down to
just lines mentioning "python", piping is covered properly in the next
lesson, but this is one of its most common real uses: a command produces
too much output, and a second command narrows it down to what you
actually care about. Once you've found the right process id (PID), 4821 here, kill stops it. Add -9
(kill -9 4821) to force-kill a process that isn't responding
to the normal, more polite request to stop.
$ ps aux | grep python
$ kill 4821The grep filters ps's output down to lines mentioning "python", e.g. showing PID 4821 — which the kill command then stops.