The ps command lists the processes running on the system at a particular time. The top program provides an interactive interface to the information that ps displays. It shows the current system status as well as the fields a ps listing shows, and it updates every second. Also, top lists the most active processes at the top of its display.
'ps' command lists current processes and their usage statistics , but it does not tell how processes change over time so it won't help to determine which process is using too much CPU time or memory.
'top' program provides an interactive interface to the information that 'ps' displays. it shows the current system status as well as the fields 'ps' listing shows and it updates every second.
'top' lists the most active processes ( by default, those currently taking up the most CPU time) at the top of it's display.
we can send commands to top with keystrokes and most frequently use commands deal with changing the sort order or filtering the processes list.
