What Key Toggles Process Count in Ubuntu Top

This article details the specific keyboard shortcut used within the Ubuntu terminal to manage system monitoring views. It focuses on the top command utility and explains how to instantly show or hide the line displaying the total number of running processes.

To access this feature, open your terminal and launch the top command by typing top and pressing Enter. Once the utility is running and displaying real-time system data, locate the header section at the top of the screen. The line labeled “Tasks” contains the total process count along with status details such as running, sleeping, or stopped.

To toggle the visibility of this process count line, simply press the t key on your keyboard. Pressing t once will hide the Tasks summary line, providing more vertical space for the list of processes below. Pressing t again will restore the display, making the process count visible once more. This shortcut works instantly without requiring a restart of the command.