Why Bashtop Is a Must-Have Linux Resource Monitoring Tool

Bashtop is a terminal‑based resource‑monitoring utility for Linux that provides a game‑style responsive UI, neatly arranged sections, and visual statistics for CPU, memory, running processes, and network bandwidth. It allows sorting processes, switching between sorting options, and sending SIGKILL, SIGTERM, or SIGINT signals to selected processes.

Prerequisites

Bash 4.4 or newer

Git

GNU coreutils

GNU sed, awk, grep, and ps utilities

Lm‑sensor (optional, for CPU temperature)

Manual Installation

Clone the repository and compile from source:

$ git clone https://github.com/aristocratos/bashtop.git
$ cd bashtop
$ sudo make install

Uninstall

$ sudo make uninstall

Installation on Ubuntu

Two methods are available:

Snap: $ snap install bashtop APT via PPA:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bashtop-monitor/bashtop
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install bashtop

Installation on Debian

Bashtop is in the official Debian repository:

$ sudo apt install bashtop

Installation on Fedora

$ sudo dnf install bashtop

Installation on CentOS / RHEL 8

Enable the EPEL repository first, then install:

$ sudo yum install epel-release
$ sudo dnf install bashtop

Installation on Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S bashtop

Running Bashtop

Start the monitor with:

$ bashtop

Configuration

The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bashtop/bashtop.cfg. Users can edit parameters to customize the appearance and output of metrics.

Default configuration examples are shown in the following image:

Help Menu

Press Esc, then use the down‑arrow key to select Help for a list of commands and shortcuts. The menu and options are illustrated below:

Conclusion

Bashtop provides an excellent way to monitor Linux system resources, offering detailed information on various metrics. However, it is noticeably slower than traditional tools like top or htop and consumes more resources, though it remains an impressive utility for many users.