CPU states in Top

[TekTipPal]

What does CPU states displayed in the Top command denote.

For example Cpu states a% user, b% system , c% nice, d% idle.


is a the % of CPU used by the process run by the user(say sample program ) . Could any one please explain.???


Thanks in advance

 

[unixfreak]

User means it's not a kernel thread but runs in the user space. This has to do with privilege levels in the processor/kernel. It doesn't have anything to do with users on the system. (Wel, then again...)

System is kernel threads. These have maximum privilege level.

Nice is threads that have a lower "nice" (sort of priority) value than the default.

Idle is... idle.

Cheers