# Processes

Processes: What's Running: ps, top and htop, Stopping Things: kill and Signals.

Updated: November 10, 2026

1. [What's Running: ps, top and htop](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-processes) (Apprentice): Every running program is a process with a number, its PID: ps lists the ones in your terminal, ps aux lists every one on the computer, ps aux --sort=-%cpu puts the busiest first, and top and htop show the same list live.
2. [Stopping Things: kill and Signals](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-kill-and-signals) (Journeyman): kill sends a process a signal: plain kill sends TERM, a polite request to finish up and stop; kill -KILL ends a process that ignores it; pgrep -af and pkill -f find and stop processes by name; and Ctrl+C sends INT to the program in front of you.

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/courses/bash-in-depth/topics/bash-processes