Episode 39 — Reading process reality: ps/top/htop/proc and what to look for first
Processes are central to Linux+ because nearly every troubleshooting scenario eventually becomes “what is running, under what identity, consuming what resources, and why.” This episode teaches you to read process reality using multiple viewpoints: ps for snapshot listings, top/htop for live behavior, and /proc as the authoritative source of per-process details like command line, open files, and runtime stats. You’ll learn what to look for first on the exam: identify the process of interest, confirm its state, check CPU and memory trends, and validate whether it is healthy or stuck waiting on I/O or locks. The emphasis is on recognizing patterns quickly, because many exam prompts provide only a few lines of output and expect you to infer what category of issue you are seeing.
we apply process reading to practical decision-making and safe intervention. You’ll practice distinguishing high CPU usage from high load average, and distinguishing “busy” from “blocked,” because the next best step depends on which resource is constrained. We also cover how to identify runaway processes, memory leaks, and fork storms by looking at growth over time rather than a single moment. Finally, you’ll learn an exam-aligned troubleshooting posture: observe first, collect evidence, then act—adjust priority, restart a service, or terminate a process—only after you understand impact and have a rollback plan. This keeps your answers grounded in system behavior rather than assumptions about what “usually” happens. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
