pid Process ID (default). command Command name. cpu CPU usage. csw Number of context switches. time Execution time. threads alias: th Number of threads (total/running). ports alias: prt Number of Mach ports. mregion alias: mreg, reg Number of memory regions. rprvt Resident private address space size. rshrd Resident shared address space size. rsize Resident memory size. vsize Total memory size. vprvt Private address space size. kprvt Private kernel memory size. kshrd Shared kernel memory size. pgrp Process group id. ppid Parent process id. state alias: pstate Process state. uid User ID. wq alias: #wq, workqueue The workqueue total/running. faults alias: fault The number of page faults. cow alias: cow_faults The copy-on-write faults. user alias: username Username. msgsent Total number of mach messages sent. msgrecv Total number of mach messages received. sysbsd Total BSD syscalls. sysmach Total Mach syscalls. pageins Total pageins.
Definitions Now that we know roughly how the stuff works, let's define some memory-related terms: Resident: memory which is located in physical RAM. Private: memory which is only mapped into one process. Shared: memory which is mapped into multiple processes. Address space size: the quantity of address space occupied by a particular section of virtual memory. Memory size: the amount of actual physical memory occupied. And with that, we can now see what the various fields in top mean, from looking at the man page and using these definitions: RPRVT: The amount of address space, local to this process, which corresponds to items currently present in physical RAM. RSHRD: The amount of address space, shared between this process and at least one other, which corresponds to items currently present in physical RAM. RSIZE: The total amount of physical RAM used by this process. (This is not equal to RPRVT + RSHRD because they measure address space, but this measures actual memory.) VPRVT: The amount of address space in the process mapped to items which are not shared with other processes. VSIZE: The total amount of address space in the process that's mapped to anything.