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iotop

Introduction

This cheat sheet provides a quick reference for some common iotop commands and concepts. iotop is a command-line utility used to monitor and display I/O (Input/Output) usage by processes on Unix-like operating systems.

iotop Concepts

I/O Monitoring

iotop displays real-time I/O usage by processes, including read and write operations, as well as the amount of data transferred.

  • Start iotop:
    iotop

Process Details

iotop provides details about processes, such as their process ID (PID), user, and I/O usage.

  • Display process details:
    iotop -o

Sorting

iotop allows you to sort processes by various criteria, including I/O rate and accumulated I/O.

  • Sort by I/O rate (default):

    iotop
  • Sort by accumulated I/O:

    iotop -a

Batch Mode

iotop can operate in batch mode, useful for saving data to a file.

  • Run iotop in batch mode and save the output to a file:
    iotop -b -o -n 5 > iotop_output.txt

iotop Command-Line

  • Start iotop:

    iotop
  • Display process details:

    iotop -o
  • Sort processes by accumulated I/O:

    iotop -a
  • Run iotop in batch mode and save the output to a file:

    iotop -b -o -n 5 > iotop_output.txt

Conclusion

This cheat sheet covers some common iotop commands and concepts. iotop is a valuable tool for monitoring I/O usage by processes in real-time, helping identify disk-intensive processes and potential performance bottlenecks; refer to the official iotop documentation for more in-depth information and advanced usage.