-d : Delay time interval as: -d ss.tt (seconds.tenths)
Specifies the delay between screen updates, and overrides the corresponding value in one's personal
configuration file or the startup default. Later this can be changed with the 'd' or 's'
interactive commands.
Fractional seconds are honored, but a negative number is not allowed. In all cases, however, such
changes are prohibited if top is running in 'Secure mode', except for root (unless the 's'
command-line option was used). For additional information on 'Secure mode' see topic 5a. SYSTEM
Configuration File.
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-b : Batch mode operation
Starts top in 'Batch mode', which could be useful for sending output from top to other programs or
to a file. In this mode, top will not accept input and runs until the iterations limit you've set
with the '-n' command-line option or until killed.
-c : Command line/Program name toggle
Starts top with the last remembered 'c' state reversed. Thus, if top was displaying command lines,
now that field will show program names, and visa versa. See the 'c' interactive command for
additional information.
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Pipelines
A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by one of the control operators | or |&. The
format for a pipeline is:
[time [-p]] [ ! ] command [ [|⎪|&] command2 ... ]
The standard output of command is connected via a pipe to the standard input of command2. This
connection is performed before any redirections specified by the command (see REDIRECTION below). If |&
is used, the standard error of command is connected to command2's standard input through the pipe; it is
shorthand for 2>&1 |. This implicit redirection of the standard error is performed after any
redirections specified by the command.
The return status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command, unless the pipefail option is
enabled. If pipefail is enabled, the pipeline's return status is the value of the last (rightmost)
command to exit with a non-zero status, or zero if all commands exit successfully. If the reserved word
! precedes a pipeline, the exit status of that pipeline is the logical negation of the exit status as
described above. The shell waits for all commands in the pipeline to terminate before returning a value.
If the time reserved word precedes a pipeline, the elapsed as well as user and system time consumed by
its execution are reported when the pipeline terminates. The -p option changes the output format to that
specified by POSIX. When the shell is in posix mode, it does not recognize time as a reserved word if
the next token begins with a `-'. The TIMEFORMAT variable may be set to a format string that specifies
how the timing information should be displayed; see the description of TIMEFORMAT under Shell Variables
below.
When the shell is in posix mode, time may be followed by a newline. In this case, the shell displays the
total user and system time consumed by the shell and its children. The TIMEFORMAT variable may be used
to specify the format of the time information.
Each command in a pipeline is executed as a separate process (i.e., in a subshell).
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