Why does htop on Mac OS X require root privileges to see data for all processes, but on Linux it runs without root
On Linux, htop uses the /proc filesystem, which allows viewing information provided by the kernel. That (/proc) is not part of OSX, so (like some other systems lacking this feature), one can only get at the kernel's data using privileged access.
For more discussion
- Where is the /proc folder on Mac OS X? (2013)
- Where did the /proc directory go in Mountain Lion? (2012)
- A MacFUSE-Based Process File System for Mac OS X (2007)
- /proc on Mac OS X (2003)