The concept is pretty simple. It’s like the top program, but instead of CPU and memory usage, it monitors disk I/O.
If you have a system that is extremely slow to respond, but can’t seem to figure out what is going on, give iotop a try. You’ll probably have to install it, as I’ve never found a system with iotop installed by default, but it should be in the software repository of just about every Linux distro.
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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