You are watching a live top display and want the task list re-sorted so that the processes using the most memory are at the top. Which single key does that?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 103. GNU and Unix commands easy
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How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
The options
Correct M
Correct. In top, M sorts the task list by the %MEM column.
Not correct P
Wrong. P sorts by %CPU, which is top's default sort field.
Not correct N
Wrong. N sorts numerically by PID, which is close to arrival order and says nothing about resource use.
Not correct T
Wrong. T sorts by cumulative CPU time (the TIME+ column), not by memory.
Why
top is interactive: keystrokes change the view without restarting it. The sort keys are P for %CPU, M for %MEM, N for PID and T for TIME+, while k renices nothing but kills, r renices, 1 expands the per-CPU lines and h shows the help. Sorting can also be fixed from the command line with `top -o %MEM`.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- manual page top(1)
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 103 and space the ones you get wrong.
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