LTOP(1)

🌸 LTOP(1) — the group chat guide 🌸

ok so this is ltop, from the General Commands Manual section (section 1, bestie, the "just run it in your terminal" section) 💅

✨ NAME ✨

ltop — displays ledger information for processes on the system. that's it, that's the whole vibe 🫶

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ltop -h

ltop [-dLN] [-g group] [-p pid] [-r resource] [interval]

like… two ways in. either you're just peeking at the help, or you're going full main-character with all the flags 🔥

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so picture this: ltop displays the contents of system ledgers maintained by the kernel for each process in the system. yes, every single process. the kernel is literally keeping receipts on all of them 📝

and what's a ledger, you ask? so glad you did ✨ — ledgers are a general accounting mechanism that the kernel uses to track and limit stuff like CPU time and memory usage. think of it as the kernel's little budget spreadsheet. very organized. very demure. very mindful 💅

and here's the cute part — if the optional interval is specified, then ltop will display the ledger contents every interval seconds. so it just… keeps refreshing. like a feed. but for accounting. obsessed honestly 🎀

the options are as follows:

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -d — in conjunction with interval, this one displays the rate of change for each value, as compared to the previous sample displayed. so you're not just seeing numbers, you're seeing the delta. the movement. the character development 📈 iykyk
• -L — display template info. it shows which resources are tracked, and lists the associated units. lowkey the most useful flag for getting your bearings ngl 🧚 like a map of the whole system
• -g group — only display info for the ledgers associated with group. and here's the thing, bestie — group topology can be seen via the -L option, so go look there first, don't just guess 🙈
• -p pid — only display info for process pid. one process. your special little guy. laser focus ⭐
• -N — filter out entries where credits, debits, and balance are all zero. aka the "i don't care about the empty ones" flag. honestly iconic for decluttering your life 🦋
• -r resource — only display info for ledger resource resource. and to be clear — resources are ledgers tracked by the kernel, such as memory or CPU usage. available resources can be listed via the -L option 👑 so again, -L is your bestie here

ok real talk, -L genuinely carries this whole manpage. it's giving main character energy. always check -L first 💀

🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• top(1) — the classic. the OG. go say hi 💜

and that's the whole page, bestie 🎀✨

cute little sign-off time: this one's from the macOS manual, dated November 21, 2025 — so yes, she's fresh, she's current, she ate and left no crumbs 💅🫶🌟