How to interpret "top" output

Michael and Barry, thank you for your thoughts. I think you must be right in that my "hlxserverplus" processes are really all threads of a single program taking up 48M collectively, while all the "apache2" processes are independent of each other.

However, I still can't figure out how to confirm or deny that using Linux tools. Here is the output of "ps -eLf", with a few unimportant fields stripped out for formatting purposes. Does this tell you anything about whether hlxserverplus is a different beast than apache2 ?

PID PPID LWP NLWP CMD 10229 1 10229 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10284 10229 10284 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10285 10229 10285 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10286 10284 10286 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10577 10284 10577 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10580 10284 10580 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10581 10284 10581 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10582 10284 10582 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10583 10284 10583 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10584 10284 10584 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10585 10284 10585 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10586 10284 10586 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10587 10284 10587 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10588 10284 10588 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10589 10284 10589 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus

9822 1 9822 1 usr-sbin-apache2 26609 9822 26609 1 usr-sbin-apache2 15090 9822 15090 1 usr-sbin-apache2 15096 9822 15096 1 usr-sbin-apache2 15102 9822 15102 1 usr-sbin-apache2 15195 9822 15195 1 usr-sbin-apache2 11182 9822 11182 1 usr-sbin-apache2 402 9822 402 1 usr-sbin-apache2 4947 9822 4947 1 usr-sbin-apache2 5504 9822 5504 1 usr-sbin-apache2 32459 9822 32459 1 usr-sbin-apache2 21673 9822 21673 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17395 9822 17395 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17521 9822 17521 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17523 9822 17523 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17524 9822 17524 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17525 9822 17525 1 usr-sbin-apache2 17526 9822 17526 1 usr-sbin-apache2

Just for fun, I tried printing out "ps -axf" to see if it would help. Not sure if this is useful or not:

PID PPID CMD 10229 1 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10284 10229 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10286 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10577 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10580 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10581 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10582 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10583 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10584 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10585 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10586 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10587 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10588 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10589 10284 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus 10285 10229 usr-local-helix-Bin-hlxserverplus

9822 1 usr-sbin-apache2 26609 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 15096 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 15102 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 15195 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 402 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 4947 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 32459 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 21673 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 17395 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 17523 9822 usr-sbin-apache2 17526 9822 usr-sbin-apache2

I tried running "pmap" on some of the hlxserverplus processes, but again I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for.

I guess I'm still hoping, for instance when there are 10 identically-named processes say they're taking up 15M each, how to know when they're taking up 15M collectively (total: 15M), or when they're taking up 15M each (total: 150M).

Thanks again for your time and help!

Michael Heiming