What Linux utility for sorting processes by network usage?

Linux provides the famous top command utility that displays information about running processes, including their time, process IDs, CPU usage, and much more. However, the top command does not sort processes by network usage, and the display order changes frequently based on CPU consumption.

When you need to monitor which processes are consuming the most network bandwidth, you need a specialized tool. NetHogs is the ideal Linux utility for sorting and monitoring processes by their network usage in real-time.

What is NetHogs?

NetHogs is a command-line network monitoring tool that displays real-time network traffic bandwidth usage for each running process or application. Unlike other network monitoring tools that show total network usage per interface, NetHogs breaks down network consumption by individual processes, making it easy to identify bandwidth-heavy applications.

Installing NetHogs

NetHogs is available in most Linux distribution repositories and can be installed using the package manager.

For CentOS and Fedora

yum install nethogs

For Ubuntu and Debian

sudo apt-get install nethogs

Using NetHogs

NetHogs requires root privileges to monitor network traffic. Run the following command to start monitoring processes by network usage −

sudo nethogs

Sample Output

PID    USER     PROGRAM               DEV        SENT      RECEIVED
4071   immukul  /usr/lib/sample.go    wlp1s0     0.032     0.019 KB/sec
89828  immukul  /usr/lib/thunderbird  wlp1s0     0.029     0.017 KB/sec
15972  immukul  unknown TCP           wlp1s0     0.018     0.011 KB/sec
78292  immukul  --skype-process       wlp1s0     0.008     0.003 KB/sec

Key Features

Interactive Commands

While NetHogs is running, you can use these keyboard shortcuts −

• q − Quit NetHogs

• s − Sort by sent traffic

• r − Sort by received traffic

• m − Change between KB/sec, MB/sec, and GB/sec units

Conclusion

NetHogs is the most effective Linux utility for monitoring and sorting processes by network usage. It provides real-time, process-level network bandwidth monitoring with an easy-to-read interface that automatically sorts processes by their network consumption, making it invaluable for system administrators and users who need to identify bandwidth-heavy applications.