In linux, what do all the values in the “top” command mean?

Question

When you run \"top\" and see all running processes, I\'ve always wanted to know just what everything actually means. e.g. all the various single-letter state codes for a runnin

Answer 1

Programs like top and ps takes these values from the kernel itself. You can find its definitions in the source code here:

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/3950e975431bc914f7e81b8f2a2dbdf2064acb0f/fs/proc/array.c#L129-L143

static const char * const task_state_array[] = {

    /* states in TASK_REPORT: */
    "R (running)",      /* 0x00 */
    "S (sleeping)",     /* 0x01 */
    "D (disk sleep)",   /* 0x02 */
    "T (stopped)",      /* 0x04 */
    "t (tracing stop)", /* 0x08 */
    "X (dead)",     /* 0x10 */
    "Z (zombie)",       /* 0x20 */
    "P (parked)",       /* 0x40 */

    /* states beyond TASK_REPORT: */
    "I (idle)",     /* 0x80 */
};

For more info see this question: https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/462098/79648