bb is a lightweight terminal process viewer. It was developed as a small personal project, with an emphasis on responsiveness and providing straightforward access to running processes.
The utility follows the familiar approach of tools such as top and htop, presenting a continuously updated list of tasks. Rather than surrounding that list with extensive system graphs, bb concentrates on navigating processes and finding the ones that need attention.
Its keyboard-driven interface is particularly convenient when connected to a Linux machine over SSH. Users can search for an application, examine related processes and terminate an unresponsive task without leaving the program. The intentionally modest feature set makes it an alternative for those who find more elaborate monitoring dashboards unnecessary.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Displays running processes in an interactive terminal interface with continuously refreshed information.
- Offers a process tree view showing parent-child relationships.
- Searches and filters the process list, with navigation between matching results.
- Sorts processes by username, resident memory usage, CPU consumption or command line.
- Can follow a selected process and its children or highlight a particular process by PID.
- Allows processes to be terminated from the interface, with confirmation before sending the kill request.
- Supports freezing and resuming updates to make changing process information easier to inspect.
- Includes an integrated keyboard shortcut reference.
Website: github.com/epilys/bb
Support:
Developer: Manos Pitsidianakis
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
bb is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials
Related Software
| Process Viewers | |
|---|---|
| btop++ | Continuation of bashtop and BpyTOP rewritten in C++ |
| htop | Provides a full list of processes running |
| Glances | System monitoring tool written in Python |
| nmon | Performance monitoring tool |
| bottom | GUI process/system monitor seeking inspiration from gtop, gotop and htop |
| gtop | System monitoring dashboard for the terminal |
| Conky | Advanced, highly configurable system monitor for X based on torsmo |
| Zenith | Turbo-charged top utility |
| BpyTOP | Presents the system resources in a logical and well-thought out way |
| atop | Monitor for system resources and process activity |
| ttop | System monitoring tool with historical snapshots and alerts |
| below | Time traveling resource monitor |
| sysstat | System performance tools |
| gotop | Seeks inspiration from gtop and vtop |
| sot | System observation tool |
| vtop | System monitoring tool in the spirit of top |
| dgop | System monitoring tool with CLI and REST API |
| evisum | Enlightenment system monitor |
| collectl | Collects data that describes the current system status |
| socktop | Remote system monitor with a rich TUI |
| Saidar | Displays live system statistics |
| Xtop | TUI system monito |
| tiptop | Graphical activity monitor for the command line |
| TTV | Term-task-viewer |
| Lyvoxa Stellar | Built from the ground up in Rust |
| bb | Simple process viewer |
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