Essential for Terminal: Monitoring System Resources with Ubuntu's top Command

In the Ubuntu system, the `top` command is a practical tool for monitoring system resources in the terminal, which can dynamically display the status of CPU, memory, processes, etc. To start it, open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter `top` (ordinary users can use it; `sudo` provides more system information). The core areas of the interface include: system overview information (uptime, number of users, load), process summary (total processes, running/sleeping/zombie counts), CPU status (`us` user mode, `id` idle, `wa` IO wait), memory (total/used/free/cached), Swap, and the process list (PID, `%CPU`/`%MEM`, etc.). Common shortcut keys: `P` (sort by CPU), `M` (sort by memory), `1` (display for multi-core CPUs), `k` (terminate a process), `q` (quit). Practical scenarios: Use `P` + `k` to troubleshoot CPU-high-usage processes, `M` to monitor memory leaks (where `RES` continues to rise), and address high load through `load average` (high `wa` indicates IO bottlenecks, high `us` requires program optimization). Mastering the core shortcuts allows efficient system management, making `top` an essential daily monitoring tool.