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Find Disk I/O Per Process with iotop

Use iotop to see exactly which process is reading and writing your disk in real time.

LinuxiotopmonitoringdiskMedium risk
Run sudo iotop -o -a to show only the processes currently doing disk I/O with accumulated totals.

01Command

Command
$ sudo iotop -o -a

02What it does

iotop is the disk equivalent of top: it ranks processes by their read and write throughput using the kernel's taskstats interface. The -o flag hides idle processes so you only see the ones actually touching the disk, while -a shows accumulated I/O since iotop started instead of instantaneous rates. This makes it easy to spot a backup job, indexer or runaway process slowing your machine down.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
Requirementsiotop package installed; root access to view per-process I/O

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • iotop(8) — Debian manpage
    Debian · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Debian manpage for iotop documents -o (only show processes actually doing I/O) and -a (accumulated I/O) options
  • iotop(8) — Arch Linux manual
    Arch Linux · community · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Arch manual describes iotop's --only (-o) option to show only processes or threads actually doing I/O

Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: System & Settings

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