iotop
Ranked in Process Monitoring Software·Free plan
About
iotop is a Linux utility for finding which processes are generating high input/output activity. It lists processes by I/O use and can show accumulated I/O or bandwidth, with optional columns for read, write, swap-in, and I/O percentage. Monitoring can cover the whole machine, selected process IDs, or selected users; the display can include processes and threads. Choose interactive or batch output, set delays and iteration counts, and add timestamps to batch output. Command-line filters can narrow results by thread ID or by command using a regular expression. The project provides installation guidance for Debian-derived distributions, Fedora, CentOS/RHEL, Void, Arch, and Alpine Linux, and documents building from source with make after installing development dependencies. iotop is free under GPL-2.0+ and is listed at no cost. It requires root access to install and use. Version 1.31 is listed as the latest release; its tag has a verified committer signature, but the signing key has expired.
Who it is for
iotop suits Linux administrators and operators who need to identify processes driving machine I/O, with options to focus on users or process IDs. It requires root access and is not a remote-monitoring service.
What is good
- Interactive and batch output modes
- Filters by TID or command
- Shows accumulated I/O or bandwidth
- Packages listed for several Linux distributions
- Free under GPL-2.0+
What to know first
- Requires root access
- Linux only
- No remote monitoring
- Version 1.31 signing key has expired
Verdict
iotop offers focused, process-level I/O visibility and flexible output for Linux systems. Its root requirement and lack of remote monitoring define where it fits.
Compared on process monitoring software
- Free plan
- Yesgithub.com
- Supported platforms
- Linuxgithub.com
- Remote monitoring
- Nogithub.com
- Service monitoring
- Nogithub.com
- Process alerting
- Nogithub.com
- Process controls
- Yesgithub.com
- Activity logs
- Yesgithub.com
Facts
- Purpose
- iotop identifies processes that use high amounts of input/output requests on a machine and lists them by I/O usage.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- License
- The project says iotop is licensed GPL-2.0+.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Runtime requirement
- Installing and using the program requires root access.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Linux packages
- The project lists packages or installation instructions for Debian-derived distributions, Fedora, CentOS/RHEL, Void, Arch, and Alpine Linux.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Build
- The project documents building from source with make after installing development dependencies.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Monitoring
- Options let users monitor selected process IDs or users, or show processes and threads across the machine.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Output modes
- The program supports interactive and batch modes, iteration counts, configurable delays, and timestamps in batch output.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- I/O display
- The interface can show accumulated I/O or bandwidth and can hide or show columns such as read, write, swap-in, and I/O percentage.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Filtering
- The command line supports filtering processes by TID and command using a regular expression.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Release
- The releases page lists version 1.31 as the latest release.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Release signing
- The release page says the version 1.31 tag has a verified committer signature and that the signing key has expired.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Support and community
- The project recommends filing pull requests on GitHub and says its community gathers in the #iotop channel on Libera.Chat.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
- Maintainers
- The project lists Tomas Matejicek and Boian Bonev as current maintainers.github.com · 4 Oct 2026
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Where it ranks on Inferse
Sources
- github.com/Tomas-M/iotop· checked 4 Oct 2026
- github.com/Tomas-M/iotop/releases· checked 4 Oct 2026