Monitoring Programs

One of the toughest jobs of being a Linux system administrator is keeping track of what's running on the system—especially now, when graphical desktops take a handful of programs just to produce a single desktop. There are always a lot of programs running on the system.

Fortunately, there are a few command line tools that can help make life easier for you. This section covers a few of the basic tools you'll need to know how to use to manage programs on your Linux system.

Peeking at the Processes

When a program runs on the system, it's referred to as a process. To examine these processes, you'll need to become familiar with the ps command, the Swiss Army knife of utilities. It can produce lots of information about all the programs running on your system.