How to View System Uptime in htop on Ubuntu

This article provides a concise guide on checking system uptime using the htop utility on Ubuntu. It covers the installation process and identifies the specific location of uptime data within the htop interface for quick system monitoring.

Install and Launch htop

If you do not have htop installed, open your terminal and execute the following commands to update your package list and install the tool:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install htop

Once installed, launch the interface by typing htop and pressing Enter. You may need to use sudo htop if you require root privileges to view all processes, though standard user permissions are sufficient for viewing uptime.

Find the Uptime Display

When the htop interface loads, focus on the header section at the very top of the screen. The statistics are arranged in rows. The uptime information is located in the first row of the header, typically on the left-hand side.

Look for the label Uptime:. Next to this label, the system displays the total time elapsed since the last boot. The format usually includes days, hours, and minutes (e.g., 5 days, 03:12:45). This value updates in real-time while the interface is open. To close the program, simply press the q key.