iotop - Identifying the process with the I/O

iotop is a cool tool to help identify process with the corrsponding I/O in a top-like UI.

This python program needs a Linux Kernel of > 2.6.20 with TASK_DELAY_ACCT and TASK_IO_ACCOUNTING options enabled. In addition, it requires python >= 2.5

To install on Linux Mint
# apt-get iotop

How to use iotop

Note 1: Show process that are causing I/O now
# iotop -o

Note 2: iotop in batch mode
# iotop -o -b -d20 -n30 > check-io.txt
  • -o (show process that are causing I/O only)
  • -b (Turn on interactive mode. Useful for logging I/O usage over time)
  • -d (delay or interval of 20 sec)
  • -n (number of iteration before quiting)

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