how to check the output of top, from editor

[Maaz]

# top -d 1 -n 10 > top.out

# less top.out
"top.out" may be a binary file. See it anyway?

# vi top.out
its impossible/hard to read

# cat top.out | less
its impossible/hard to read

only
# cat top.out
is working

Regards

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

By default, the top output contains terminal control codes that move the cursor around, updating various parts of the display.
When you use less or vi, the control codes are made visible/non-effective, causing a huge mess.

If you want to store the output of "top" to a file, add the -b option. With it, top won't use control codes and won't cut off the list at the terminal size.

Example:
top -b -d 1 -n 10 > top.out

# less top.out
it's easy to read, and contains more information!

MK

[Huc_1]

Is this better ?

$ grep "Maaz" top.out | sort

enjoy, life.

Jean-Pierre

[Dennis Handly]

On HP-UX (but not linux) there is a "-f file" option the removes the cursor commands.