Process Management

Summary

This note is a quick reference for checking and controlling running processes. These commands are especially useful when a program is stuck, consuming resources, or needs to be identified before you inspect logs or restart a service.

Commands

Command	Purpose
ps aux	show running processes in a detailed list
top	show live process activity
htop	show an interactive live process viewer
kill <PID>	send a signal to a process by process ID
kill -9 <PID>	force-kill a process that does not stop normally

Example usage

ps aux | grep ssh
top
kill 1234

Notes

• ps aux is good for quick inspection and searching
• top and htop are better when you need live monitoring
• kill -9 is powerful, but it should not be your first choice unless a normal stop fails

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