RUPTIME(1)
๐ฆ RUPTIME(1) โ the local-network vibe check ๐
ok so picture this: it's ruptime, bestie, and it's from the General Commands Manual โ a whole iconic little tool for seeing how every machine on your local network is doing. Let's get into it โจ
๐ธ SYNOPSIS ๐ธ
ruptime [-alrtu]
that's it. that's the whole thing. no cap, she's lowkey simple ๐ซถ
๐ DESCRIPTION ๐
okay so here's the tea โ โ ruptime gives you a status line for each machine on the local network, kinda like what uptime does but for everybody, not just the box you're sitting on. literally giving main character energy for your whole LAN ๐
and where does it get this info?? from packets broadcast by each host on the network once a minute ๐ every host is out there chirping once a minute like "hey bestie here's my status" and ruptime is collecting all of it. iykyk.
๐ heads up: machines for which no status report has been received for 11 minutes are shown as being down. eleven minutes of silence and she's declared dead. brutal but fair.
๐ Options ๐
-aโ users idle an hour or more are not counted unless you give the-aflag. so if you want the idle girlies included in the count, say it with your chest ๐-lโ sort by load average ๐ฅ-rโ reverses the sort order ๐ (yes she works with the sorting options, go off)-tโ sort by uptime โณ-uโ sort by number of users ๐ง
and if you don't pick anything? the default listing is sorted by host name โญ alphabetical, clean, classic. no notes.
๐ FILES ๐
/var/spool/rwho/whod.*โ data files ๐ (this is where the magic lives, don't touch it unless you know what you're doing)
๐ฅ SEE ALSO ๐ฅ
the whole friend group fr fr ๐ซถ
๐ HISTORY ๐
ruptime appeared in 4.2BSD. an icon, a legend, a pioneer โจ
and that's the whole page bestie!! ๐ this lil cutie is from Linux NetKit (0.17), dated August 15, 1999 โ so yeah she's vintage but she still slays. bye mwah ๐๐
๐ฆ where this page comes from
- debian bookworm: rwho 0.17-15
- debian trixie: rwho 0.17-16
- ubuntu jammy: rwho 0.17-14
- ubuntu noble: rwho 0.17-15
- ubuntu questing: rwho 0.17-16
- ubuntu resolute: rwho 0.17-16build1
- ubuntu stonking: rwho 0.17-19
- Copyright (c) 1983, 1990 The Regents of the University of California
- ๐ girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms