1) jobs = lists the jobs that you are running in the background and in the foreground

Syntax

jobs [-p | -l] [-n] [-p] [-x] [job id]

If the prompt is returned with no information no jobs are present

jobs -p : list only the PID of process group leader

jobs -l : list only jobs that have change status since last notified by their status

jobs -r : resrict output to running jobs

jobs – s : restrict output to stopped jobs

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2) bg = place a job in background

Normally user can run a job in background, by adding & at end of the
command (ex: sleep 10 &).

bg is a shell command. It is used to move a job from foreground to the
background, as if it had been started with `&’. If JOB is not present,
the shell’s notion of the current job is used.

Examples (follow all the steps below)

a) $ sleep 100 — Start a dummy job in foreground.   (sleep = waits a x amount of second)
Press Ctrl+z to stop the current job.

b) $ bg — Move the last stopped job to background.

c) $ sleep 150 — Dummy job 1
Press Ctrl+z to stop the current job.

d) $ sleep 140 — Dummy job 2
Press Ctrl+z to stop the current job.

e) $ sleep 130 — Dummy job 3
Press Ctrl+z to stop the current job.

f) $ jobs — List all active jobs.

g) $ bg 2 — Move the 2nd active job to background.

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.3) fg = continues a stopped job by running it in the foreground

Examples

fg – Typing fg alone will resume the first job were it was left off.

fg 1 – specifying the job (in this case 1) will resume that particular job. The job id can be determined by running bg

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4) nice = run a command with modified priority

nice command is used to run the given command with its scheduling
priority adjusted. Priority range goes from -20 (highest priority)
to 19 (lowest priority).

Examples:

$ nice — Prints the current priority value.

$ nice ls — Increment the priority value of the ls command
by 10 (Default value) and run.

$ nice -n 5 ls — Increment the priority value of the ls command
by 5 and run.

# nice -n -2 ls — Decrement the priority value of the ls command by
-2 and run.

NOTE: Incrementing the priority value will reduce the priority level
and vice versa. Priority range is -20 (high) to 19 (low).

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5) renice = renice is used to alters the scheduling priority of one or more
running processes, priority range goes from -20 (highest priority)
to 19 (lowest priority).

Examples:

$ renice +1 123 — Increment the priority value of a process, which
process ID is 123.

# renice +1 123 — Decrement the priority value of a process, which
process ID is 123. (Root only can decrement ).

$ renice +1 -p 123 -p 200 — Same as above. Here no. of process is 2.

$ renice +1 -u sbharathi — Increment the priority value of all
processes, which is owned by a user (sbharathi).

$ renice +1 -g backup — Increment the priority value of all
processes, which is owned by a group (backup).

NOTE: Incrementing the priority value will reduce the priority level
and vice versa. Priority range is -20 (high) to 19 (low).

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6) at = schedules a command to be ran at a particular time, such as a print job late at night

Syntax
at –  executes commands at a specified time.
atq – lists the user’s pending jobs, unless the user is the superuser; in that case, everybody’s jobs are listed. The format of the output lines (one for each job) is: Job number, date, hour, job class.
atrm –  deletes jobs, identified by their job number.
batch – executes commands when system load levels permit; in other words, when the load average drops below 1.5, or the value specified in the invocation of atrun.

Examples

at -m 01:35 < atjob = Run the commands listed in the ‘atjob’ file at 1:35AM, in addition all output that is generated from job mail to the user running the task. When this command has been successfully enter you should receive a prompt similar to the below example.

commands will be executed using /bin/csh
job 1072250520.a at Wed Dec 24 00:22:00 2003

at -l = This command will list each of the scheduled jobs as seen below.

1072250520.a Wed Dec 24 00:22:00 2003

at -r 1072250520.a = Deletes the job just created.

or

atrm 23 = Deletes job 23.

If you wish to create a job that is repeated you could modify the file that executes the commands with another command that recreates the job or better yet use the crontab command.

Note: Performing just the at command at the prompt will give you an error “Garbled Time”, this is a standard error message if no switch or time setting is given.

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7) top = provide information (frequently refreshed) about the most CPU-intensive processes currently running

Description of the fields

a: PID — Process Id
The task’s unique process ID, which periodically wraps, though never restarting at zero.
b: PPID — Parent Process Pid
The process ID of a task’s parent.
c: RUSER — Real User Name
The real user name of the task’s owner.
d: UID — User Id
The effective user ID of the task’s owner.
e: USER — User Name
The effective user name of the task’s owner.
f: GROUP — Group Name
The effective group name of the task’s owner.
g: TTY — Controlling Tty
The name of the controlling terminal. This is usually the device (serial port, pty, etc.) from which the process was started, and which it uses for input or output. However, a task need not be associated with a terminal, in which case you’ll see ‘?’ displayed.
h: PR — Priority
The priority of the task.
i: NI — Nice value
The nice value of the task. A negative nice value means higher priority, whereas a positive nice value means lower priority. Zero in this field simply means priority will not be adjusted in determining a task’s dispatchability./dd>
j: P — Last used CPU (SMP)
A number representing the last used processor. In a true SMP environment this will likely change frequently since the kernel intentionally uses weak affinity. Also, the very act of running top may break this weak affinity and cause more processes to change CPUs more often (because of the extra demand for cpu time).
k: %CPU — CPU usage
The task’s share of the elapsed CPU time since the last screen update, expressed as a percentage of total CPU time. In a true SMP environment, if ‘Irix mode’ is Off, top will operate in ‘Solaris mode’ where a task’s cpu usage will be divided by the total number of CPUs. You toggle ‘Irix/Solaris’ modes with the ‘I’ interactive command.
l: TIME — CPU Time
Total CPU time the task has used since it started. When ‘Cumulative mode’ is On, each process is listed with the cpu time that it and its dead children has used. You toggle ‘Cumulative mode’ with ‘S’, which is a command-line option and an interactive command. See the ‘S’ interactive command for additional information regarding this mode.
m: TIME+ — CPU Time, hundredths
The same as ‘TIME’, but reflecting more granularity through hundredths of a second.
n: %MEM — Memory usage (RES)
A task’s currently used share of available physical memory.
o: VIRT — Virtual Image (kb)
The total amount of virtual memory used by the task. It includes all code, data and shared libraries plus pages that have been swapped out.

VIRT = SWAP + RES.

p: SWAP — Swapped size (kb)
The swapped out portion of a task’s total virtual memory image.
q: RES — Resident size (kb)
The non-swapped physical memory a task has used.

RES = CODE + DATA.

r: CODE — Code size (kb)
The amount of physical memory devoted to executable code, also known as the ‘text resident set’ size or TRS.
s: DATA — Data+Stack size (kb)
The amount of physical memory devoted to other than executable code, also known as the ‘data resident set’ size or DRS.
t: SHR — Shared Mem size (kb)
The amount of shared memory used by a task. It simply reflects memory that could be potentially shared with other processes.
u: nFLT — Page Fault count
The number of major page faults that have occurred for a task. A page fault occurs when a process attempts to read from or write to a virtual page that is not currently present in its address space. A major page fault is when disk access is involved in making that page available.
v: nDRT — Dirty Pages count
The number of pages that have been modified since they were last written to disk. Dirty pages must be written to disk before the corresponding physical memory location can be used for some other virtual page.
w: S — Process Status
The status of the task which can be one of:
‘D’ = uninterruptible sleep
‘R’ = running
‘S’ = sleeping
‘T’ = traced or stopped
‘Z’ = zombieTasks shown as running should be more properly thought of as ‘ready to run’ — their task_struct is simply represented on the Linux run-queue. Even without a true SMP machine, you may see numerous tasks in this state depending on top’s delay interval and nice value.
x: Command — Command line or Program name
Display the command line used to start a task or the name of the associated program. You toggle between command line and name with ‘c’, which is both a command-line option and an interactive command.When you’ve chosen to display command lines, processes without a command line (like kernel threads) will be shown with only the program name in parentheses, as in this example:( mdrecoveryd )

Either form of display is subject to potential truncation if it’s too long to fit in this field’s current width. That width depends upon other fields selected, their order and the current screen width.

Note: The ‘Command’ field/column is unique, in that it is not fixed-width. When displayed, this column will be allocated all remaining screen width (up to the maximum 512 characters) to provide for the potential growth of program names into command lines.

y: WCHAN — Sleeping in Function
Depending on the availability of the kernel link map (‘System.map’), this field will show the name or the address of the kernel function in which the task is currently sleeping. Running tasks will display a dash (‘-‘) in this column.Note: By displaying this field, top’s own working set will be
increased by over 700Kb. Your only means of reducing that overhead
will be to stop and restart top.
z: Flags — Task Flags
This column represents the task’s current scheduling flags which are expressed in hexadecimal notation and with zeros suppressed. These flags are officially documented in . Less formal documentation can also be found on the ‘Fields select’ and ‘Order fields’ screens.

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Interactive commands

While top is running you may issue some options that will interact immediately with top these options are:

h
Help, displays a summary of command that will modify the behavior of top
k
Kills a process, you will be able to kill only your own processes, unless you are running top as root
n
Once this command is entered top will ask you how many lines you want on your screen, if you enter 0 top will display as much as it can
q
Exits top
r
Change the priority of a process, as well as with k you will only be able to act on your own processes unless you are root
W
Writes the current configuration to your personal configuration file, which is $HOME/.toprc