How to Refresh htop Screen in Ubuntu

This article explains how to update the process monitoring display in htop on Ubuntu. It clarifies the default automatic refresh behavior and identifies the specific keyboard keys used to force a visual update or redraw the screen if it becomes unresponsive.

htop is designed to refresh its data automatically every few seconds, so pressing a key to manually refresh is typically unnecessary. However, if you need to force an immediate update of the process tree structure, you can press the F5 key. This key toggles the tree view, which forces the interface to redraw and update the process list immediately.

If the htop screen appears frozen or stuck due to terminal display issues rather than data latency, press Ctrl + L. This command sends a redraw signal to the terminal emulator, clearing any visual glitches without closing the application. To adjust the automatic refresh rate, press F2 to enter the Setup menu, navigate to the Display options, and change the “Delay” value to a lower number for faster updates.