Linux Process Management Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to process management on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including viewing processes, managing processes, process priorities, and resource monitoring.

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Table of Contents

1. Viewing Processes
2. Managing Processes
3. Process Priorities
4. Resource Monitoring
5. Troubleshooting

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Viewing Processes

ps Command

List processes:

# All processes
ps aux

# Tree view
ps auxf

# Specific user
ps -u username

# By command
ps aux | grep firefox

See PS Process Management for detailed guide.

top Command

Interactive process viewer:

# Launch top
top

# Sort by CPU: Press P
# Sort by memory: Press M
# Kill process: Press k

See Free & Top Resource Monitoring for detailed guide.

htop

Better top:

# Install htop
sudo pacman -S htop

# Launch
htop

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Managing Processes

Kill Process

Kill by PID:

# Kill process
kill PID

# Force kill
kill -9 PID

# Kill by name
pkill process-name

# Force kill by name
killall -9 process-name

systemctl

Manage services:

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop service-name

# Kill service
sudo systemctl kill service-name

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Process Priorities

nice

Set priority:

# Run with low priority
nice -n 19 command

# Run with high priority
nice -n -20 command

renice

Change priority:

# Change priority
sudo renice -n 10 -p PID

# Change for user
sudo renice -n 10 -u username

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Resource Monitoring

Monitor Resources

Check resources:

# CPU and memory
top

# Memory
free -h

# Disk I/O
iostat

# Network
iftop

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Troubleshooting

High CPU Usage

Find CPU hogs:

# Sort by CPU
top -o %CPU

# Or
ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head

High Memory Usage

Find memory hogs:

# Sort by memory
top -o %MEM

# Or
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head

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Summary

This guide covered process management for Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions, including viewing, managing, priorities, and monitoring.

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Next Steps

• PS Process Management - ps command guide
• Free & Top Resource Monitoring - Resource monitoring
• System Monitoring - System monitoring
• ArchWiki Process Management: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Process_management

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This guide covers Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other Linux distributions. For distribution-specific details, refer to your distribution's documentation.