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Process monitoring ​

Use htop in remote shell to see what processes are running on a Linux device - useful for diagnosing high CPU, memory leaks, or stuck services in the field.

Install htop ​

On Debian/Ubuntu:

shell
sudo apt install -y htop

Run htop ​

shell
htop

Use arrow keys to navigate, F9 to kill a process (with care on production devices), q to quit.

When to use this ​

  • Device is slow or unresponsive - identify runaway processes
  • After a deployment - confirm your application started
  • Before restarting services - see current state

For fleet-wide monitoring, configure Dataplicity monitors instead of checking htop manually on each device.