how to install htop on kali linux

To install htop on Kali Linux, start by updating your system’s package lists. Open your terminal and run:

sudo apt update

Once the update completes, installing htop is as simple as:

sudo apt install htop -y

This will fetch the latest version of htop from Kali’s repositories and install it.

Verifying the Installation

After installation, confirm htop is available by typing:

htop

If installed correctly, the interactive process viewer will open instantly, showing you CPU usage, memory consumption, swap usage, and a real-time list of running processes.

Using htop with Root Privileges

Although htop works without sudo, running it as root lets you manage and kill any system process. Launch it with:

sudo htop

Inside htop, you can scroll using your arrow keys and press F9 to kill a process. Use F6 to change the sorting column (for example, sort by memory or CPU usage).

Customizing htop Display

You can toggle detailed CPU information or add columns by pressing F2. The setup menu allows you to:

• Show tree view of processes

• Add or remove meters like CPU frequency or load average

• Change color schemes

After configuring your view, press F10 to exit the setup.

Removing htop

If you ever want to uninstall htop:

sudo apt remove htop -y

To clean up unused dependencies after that:

sudo apt autoremove

Bonus: Install Latest Version from Source (Optional)

The version in Kali’s repository might be outdated. To compile the latest version:

sudo apt install git autotools-dev autoconf build-essential -y
git clone https://github.com/htop-dev/htop.git
cd htop
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

This installs the freshest release directly from the GitHub repo.