Linux – top command occupied high cpu usage

central-processing-unitlinuxtop

My system is SUSE 10 and I observe that top occupies 57% CPU usage when I use it.

top with 57% CPU

I don't have too many processes:

ps -eLf | wc -l
106

Here are top's stats:

cat /proc/2913/stat
2913 (top) R 2879 2913 2879 34819 2913 8396800 411 0 0 0 60648 199580 0 0 17 0 1 516504552 4811013274 2383872 285 4294967295 134512640 134596384 3215474448 3215470376 3085449998 0 0 0 138047495 0 0 0 17 3 0 0 0


cat /proc/2913/status 
Name:   top
State:  R (running)
SleepAVG:       79%
Tgid:   2913
Pid:    2913
PPid:   2879
TracerPid:      0
Uid:    0       0       0       0
Gid:    0       0       0       0
FDSize: 256
Groups: 0 
VmPeak:     2360 kB
VmSize:     2328 kB
VmLck:         0 kB
VmHWM:      1144 kB
VmRSS:      1140 kB
VmData:      260 kB
VmStk:        84 kB
VmExe:        84 kB
VmLib:      1788 kB
VmPTE:        16 kB
Threads:        1
SigQ:   2/16383
SigPnd: 0000000000000000
ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
SigBlk: 0000000000000000
SigIgn: 0000000000000000
SigCgt: 00000000083a7007
CapInh: 0000000000000000
CapPrm: 00000000fffffeff
CapEff: 00000000fffffeff
Cpus_allowed:   00000000,00000000,00000000,0000000f
Mems_allowed:   1

## cat /proc/2913/statm
582 285 213 21 0 86 0

What can I do next to find the reason why the top command is using so much CPU?

Best Answer

Your server is up 556 days. Though this shouldn't be a problem it is possible the long uptime is causing some funky behaviour like you're noticing. Without any identifiable cause. In my experience in such situations a fresh reboot clears up the problem right away. I understand it's a stupid solution, but why waste more time figuring it out?

If a reboot doesn't fix it then it's worth looking into it more deeply.

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