Domyślnie top działa w trybie interaktywnym (pozwala na wykonywanie akcji i zmianę ustawień już po uruchomieniu za pomocą specjalnych klawiszy).
Aby to osiągnąć wysyła specjalne sekwencje sterujące do terminala. Sekwencje te nie są wypisywane użytkownikowi. Można je jednak podejrzeć programem vi.
Tryb interaktywny możńa wyłączyć przełącznikiem -b.
top -n 1 > ./tmp
vi ./tmp
^[[H^[[2J^[[m^[(Btop - 13:29:11 up 52 min, 2 users, load average: 0.33, 0.23, 0.13^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
Tasks:^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 157 ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mtotal,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 1 ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mrunning,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 156 ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49msleeping,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0 ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mstopped,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0 ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mzombie^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
Cpu(s):^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 27.9%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mus,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 4.9%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49msy,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0.7%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mni,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 63.9%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mid,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 2.3%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mwa,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0.1%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mhi,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0.1%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49msi,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0.0%^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mst^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
Mem: ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 2060240k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mtotal,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 1423920k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mused,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 636320k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mfree,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 216672k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mbuffers^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
Swap:^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 947792k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mtotal,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 0k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mused,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 947792k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mfree,^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[m^[(B 525852k ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49mcached^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
^[[6;1H
^[[7m PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m^[[K
^[[m^[(B 2597 krzysiek 20 0 1104m 459m 38m S 81 22.8 33:20.63 firefox ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m
^[[m^[(B 1442 root 20 0 310m 41m 13m S 12 2.1 2:00.17 Xorg ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m
^[[m^[(B 2382 krzysiek 20 0 155m 4572 3484 S 4 0.2 0:24.77 pulseaudio ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m
^[[m^[(B 3178 krzysiek 20 0 56200 14m 10m S 2 0.7 0:01.53 gnome-terminal ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m
^[[m^[(B^[[m^[(B 3249 krzysiek 20 0 2464 1080 784 R 2 0.1 0:00.01 top ^[[m^[(B^[[39;49m
^[[m^[(B 1 root 20 0 3420 1592 1120 S 0 0.1 0:01.01 init
top -b -n 1 > ./tmp
vi ./tmp
top - 13:25:03 up 48 min, 2 users, load average: 0.08, 0.03, 0.07
Tasks: 157 total, 4 running, 153 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 27.0%us, 4.9%sy, 0.8%ni, 64.5%id, 2.5%wa, 0.1%hi, 0.1%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2060240k total, 1421628k used, 638612k free, 216096k buffers
Swap: 947792k total, 0k used, 947792k free, 525656k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
2597 krzysiek 20 0 1104m 457m 38m S 82 22.7 29:56.81 firefox
1442 root 20 0 310m 41m 13m R 6 2.1 1:44.82 Xorg
3240 krzysiek 20 0 2464 1056 776 R 4 0.1 0:00.02 top
1 root 20 0 3420 1592 1120 S 0 0.1 0:01.01 init
2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
4 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0