How Linux Works, 3rd Edition

8 A Closer Look at Processes and Resource Utilization

This chapter takes you deeper into the relationships between processes, the kernel, and system resources. There are three basic kinds of hardware resources: CPU, memory, and I/O. Processes vie for these resources, and the kernel’s job is to allocate resources fairly. The kernel itself is also a resource—a software resource that processes use to perform tasks such as creating new processes and communicating with other processes.

Many of the tools that you see in this chapter are considered performance-monitoring tools. They’re particularly helpful if your system is slowing to a crawl and ...