# How to Install Htop on Arch Linux

> URL: https://www.atlantic.net/dedicated-server-hosting/how-to-install-htop-on-arch-linux/ | Published: 2022-11-17 | Updated: 2024-04-19 | Author: Hitesh Jethva

Htop is a free, open-source, interactive system monitor, process viewer, and process manager designed for Linux-based operating systems. It is very similar to Task Manager in the Windows OS used to troubleshoot and kill a process that is utilizing excessive server resources. It helps the system administrator to monitor system load, CPU, memory usage, processes, and more via a command-line interface.

In this post, we will show you how to install and use Htop on Arch Linux.

## Step 1 – Configure Repository

By default, the default repository is outdated in Arch Linux, so you will need to modify the default mirror list. You can do it by editing the mirrorlist configuration file:

```
nano  /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
```

Remove all lines and add the following lines:

```
## Score: 0.7, United States
Server = http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 0.8, United States
Server = http://lug.mtu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://mirror.nl.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 0.9, United Kingdom
Server = http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 1.5, United Kingdom
Server = http://mirrors.manchester.m247.com/arch-linux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://archlinux.dcc.fc.up.pt/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.6, United States
Server = http://mirror.cs.pitt.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.7, United States
Server = http://mirrors.acm.wpi.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 6.8, United States
Server = http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 7.1, India
Server = http://mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
## Score: 10.1, United States
Server = http://mirrors.xmission.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
```

Save and close the file, then update all the package indexes with the following command:

```
pacman -Syu
```

## Step 2 – Install Htop on Arch Linux

By default, the Htop package is included in the Arch Linux default repository. You can see the detailed information on Htop using the following command:

```
pacman -Si htop
```

You should see the following output:

```
Repository      : extra
Name            : htop
Version         : 3.2.1-1
Description     : Interactive process viewer
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://htop.dev/
Licenses        : GPL
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : libcap  libcap.so=2-64  libnl  ncurses  libncursesw.so=6-64
Optional Deps   : lm_sensors: show cpu temperatures
                  lsof: show files opened by a process
                  strace: attach to a running process
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 144.56 KiB
Installed Size  : 362.45 KiB
Packager        : Christian Hesse <eworm@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Fri 03 Jun 2022 06:35:51 AM UTC
Validated By    : MD5 Sum  SHA-256 Sum  Signature
```

Next, install Htop using the following command:

```
pacman -Sy htop
```

## Step 3 – How to Use Htop To Monitor Linux System

To use the Htop tool, open your command-line interface and run the Htop command:

```
htop
```

You should see all processes and system resources on the following screen:
 ![Htop list all processes](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p1-1-1024x526.png)

Htop provides some common keyboard shortcuts that allow you to manage Htop.

To see the help information for Htop, press the **F1** key. You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop help information](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p2.png)
 To see the setup information, press the **F2** key. You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop setup information](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/f2-1024x434.png)
 To search htop for user names and process names, press the **F3** key. You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop search by username](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/f3-1024x524.png)
 To see the process tree instead of a single line per process, press the **F5.** You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop process tree](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p5-1024x526.png)
 To see the individual process and sort it, press the **F6.** You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop see individual process](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p6-1024x526.png)
 To see a list of signals that can be sent to the process, press the **F9** key. You should see the following screen:
 ![Htop see list of signals](https://www.atlantic.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p8-1024x525.png)

## Conclusion

In this post, we explained how to install Htop on Arch Linux. We also explained how to use it to monitor the system resources. You can now install Htop on [dedicated hosts](https://www.atlantic.net/dedicated-server-hosting/) from Atlantic.Net! and monitor server processes.