How to Permanently Save htop Settings in Ubuntu

This article confirms that you can save htop configuration changes permanently on Ubuntu and explains the specific steps to ensure they persist. By default, htop is designed to write settings to a configuration file upon exit, but user permissions and directory structures often interfere with this process. The following sections detail where the configuration is stored, how to apply changes correctly, and how to troubleshoot issues if settings reset after closing the application.

Understanding htop Configuration Storage

htop stores its configuration in a plain text file located in your home directory. Specifically, the file path is ~/.config/htop/htoprc. When you modify settings within the htop interface, such as changing color schemes, meter layouts, or column displays, these changes are held in memory until the program closes. Upon a proper exit, htop attempts to write the current state of these settings to the htoprc file. If this file exists and is writable, your changes will be loaded automatically the next time you launch the tool.

Properly Exiting to Save Changes

A common reason for lost configuration is an improper exit method. To ensure settings are saved, you must exit htop using the built-in quit command. Press the F10 key or the q key while inside the application. These commands trigger the shutdown sequence that includes writing the configuration file. If you close the terminal window abruptly or kill the process using a system signal like kill -9, htop cannot execute the save routine, and your changes will be lost.

Handling Permission Issues

If you run htop with standard user privileges, it saves settings to your user configuration directory. However, if you run htop using sudo htop, it looks for the configuration file in the root user’s home directory (/root/.config/htop/htoprc). Changes made while running as root will not appear when you run htop as a normal user. To maintain consistent settings, avoid using sudo unless necessary for viewing specific processes. If you must run as root, configure the settings while in sudo mode so they save to the root configuration file.

Manually Editing the Configuration File

You can also edit the configuration file directly if the interface changes are not sticking. Open the file using a text editor like nano with the command nano ~/.config/htop/htoprc. If the directory or file does not exist, run htop once and exit properly to generate it. You can modify values such as color_scheme or sort_key directly in this file. Ensure you save the file and exit the editor correctly. Once edited, the next time you launch htop, it will read these permanent values from the disk.