Linux Professional Institute (LPI) 101-500 Practice Test 2025 - Free LPI 101-500 Practice Questions and Study Guide

The command used to monitor system performance in real-time is htop. This tool is an interactive process viewer for Unix systems that provides an intuitive interface for viewing CPU usage, memory consumption, and running processes. htop allows users to sort and filter processes, making it easier to manage system resources and identify performance bottlenecks. It also features a color-coded display that enhances readability and provides a clear view of the system's status.

htop enhances the functionality of the traditional top command by offering additional features such as customizable process display, a tree view of processes, and the ability to send signals to processes without needing to type in their process IDs. These enhancements make htop a popular choice among users who need detailed performance metrics and system monitoring capabilities.

While top is also a valid tool for monitoring system performance, htop provides a more user-friendly and informative experience. Iotop focuses specifically on disk I/O usage, so while it’s useful for analyzing input/output performance, it does not provide a complete picture of overall system performance. Vmstat, on the other hand, is useful for reporting virtual memory statistics but does not display real-time data in an interactive manner like htop does.