Roald Baudoux

I would like to know if it's possible to get the results from the terminal's "top" command into Max. With a shell object maybe?

Also, is there a Windows equivalent for "top"?

getting-the-results-from-the-terminals-top-command-into-max-possible

In Windows, this seems to do it, but only once, without regular refreshing:

Type each line in PowerShell, one by one:

Get-Counter -ComputerName localhost '\Process(*)\% Processor Time' `

Select-Object -ExpandProperty countersamples `

Select-Object -Property instancename, cookedvalue `

Sort-Object -Property cookedvalue -Descending | Select-Object -First 20 `

ft InstanceName,@{L='CPU';E={($_.Cookedvalue/100).toString('P')}} -AutoSize

Type each line in PowerShell, one by one:
Get-Counter -ComputerName localhost '\Process(*)\% Processor Time' `
Select-Object -ExpandProperty countersamples `
Select-Object -Property instancename, cookedvalue `
Sort-Object -Property cookedvalue -Descending | Select-Object -First 20 `
ft InstanceName,@{L='CPU';E={($_.Cookedvalue/100).toString('P')}} -AutoSize


I finally got it: the "top"command returns data to Max only if the -l option is used. It makes top returning only a limited number of samples instead of a (default) infinite number.

The following command will return the top 5 most CPU-hungry applications each second during one minute (60 iterations). A minimal amount of 2 samples is mandatory because the first sample returns 0.0 for all applications.

/usr/bin/top -u -stats command\,cpu -l 60 -n 5 -s 1

The -stats option allows to get only the application's name and the relative CPU usage data. Other arguments allow for more/different data (memory usage for instance).

The -n 5 option limits the sample to the top 5 CPU-hungry applications because I suppose that Max is within the top-5 CPU-eaters (in my configuration it's the top 1 most of the time) but you might want to change it.

Don't forget the backslash before the comma otherwise Max will insert a space after it and this will make the command line non-functional.

With the "command" and "cpu" stats, one can easily route the important data and forget about all the global statistics provided by "top". See Max code example below. This example do also reports the "top" command's CPU usage too because it's not insignificant.

Don't forget the backslash before the comma otherwise Max will insert a space after it and this  will make the command line non-functional.

With the "command" and "cpu" stats, one can easily route the important data and forget about all the global statistics provided by "top". See Max code example below. This example do also reports the "top" command's CPU usage too because it's not insignificant.


With the dhj.shell object under MacOS X Lion / 32 bits, one has to insert a zl.iter 2 object. Also the refreshing rate might be reduced to cope with an older computer's power.

Getting the results from the terminal's "top" command into Max - possible ?