I'd like to find out how long the system has been running under UNIX or Linux operating system. How do I find out system uptime?
Both Linux and UNIX like systems comes with various command to find out server uptime command. Under Linux file /proc/uptime has uptime information and file /var/run/utmp has information about who is currently logged on. However, information from /proc or utmp file is not directly readable by humans so you need to use the following commands.
UNIX / Linux uptime command
Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type the following commands:
$ uptime
Sample outputs:
21:54:11 up 13 days, 4:29, 1 user, load average: 0.21, 0.21, 0.12
The uptime command gives a one line display of the following information.
- The current time (21:54:11)
- How long the system has been running (up 13 days)
- How many users are currently logged on (1 user)
- The system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes (0.21, 0.21, 0.12)
This is the same information contained in the header line displayed by the w and top commands:
$ w
Sample outputs:
21:56:06 up 13 days, 4:31, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.14, 0.09 USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT root pts/0 123.xxx.yy.zzz 21:54 0.00s 0.02s 0.00s vi
$ top
Sample outputs:
Fig.01: UNIX uptime top command output
Please note that the w command displays who is logged on and what they are doing while top command provides a dynamic real-time view of a running Linux/UNIX/BSD operating systems.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
my favorite :) updates every second….
top -d 1Nice looking site; useful and clear information. Good job!
The only problem with the uptime command is that it isn’t always obvious what units of measure to the time it has been up. Just a bit confusing for those new to it, especially those from the Windoze world trying to come over to Linux. Just fleshing out the units (up 5 hours:54 minutes (days:hours:minutes)) on this would certainly help in bringing more over, especially if we can get into the man&info pages.
$ uptime
07:55:56 up 3 days, 17:37, 6 users, load average: 0.04, 0.06, 0.01
$
by default it will give how many days the OS is up, and how many hours:mins.
if it less than 1 day, it will give only hours:mins.
Wonderful.
Hi,
How do I get only time information excluding other load information
Thanks,
Ravi.