What key elements are displayed in the htop interface and how do you interpret them?

The htop interface is an interactive system resource monitor in Linux that displays:

• CPU Usage: graphs and percentages of load for each processor core.
• Memory: usage of RAM and swap.
• Load Average: the average system load over 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
• Tasks: number of processes and threads, their states (running, sleeping, etc.).
• Uptime: the system's running time since the last boot.
• Process List: a table with information about processes, including PID, user, priority, CPU and memory usage, runtime, and command.

Interpretation:

• High CPU load indicates intensive processor activity.
• High memory usage can lead to swapping and reduced performance.
• Load Average shows how loaded the system is: a value exceeding the number of cores suggests possible overload.
• Process states help understand which tasks are actively running and which are waiting for resources.

htop allows sorting processes, searching for them, and sending signals (e.g., to terminate a process) directly from the interface.