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perf:tldr:590b1
The sudo perf top
command is used to monitor and display the CPU performance statistics in real time on a Linux system.
Here's how it works:
-
sudo
is the command used to run a program with administrative or superuser privileges. It allows theperf
command to access sensitive system information and perform low-level performance monitoring operations. -
perf
is a Linux tool used for performance analysis and profiling of the CPU, memory, and other system resources. It provides detailed insights and statistics about various aspects of system performance. -
top
is a command-line utility that displays a dynamic, real-time view of the most resource-consuming processes on a Linux system. However, when combined withperf
, it presents the same information in a more performance-oriented way.
When you run sudo perf top
, the command starts monitoring the system's activities, samples the CPU usage at regular intervals, and displays a live, interactive text-based interface showing the top performance-consuming processes. The output of perf top
is sorted by CPU utilization, with the most resource-intensive processes listed at the top.
By observing perf top
, you can get an overview of which processes are taking up the most CPU time, helping you identify potential performance bottlenecks, analyze code efficiency, or optimize system resource allocation.