UPTIME(1)

✨ UPTIME(1) — the "how long has this machine been awake" check ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual, section 1, and today's main character is uptime 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

uptime — literally just tells you how long the system has been running. that's it. that's the whole job. she's simple, she's iconic, she serves.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

uptime [option ...]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so uptime gives you one single line of output — one line, that's the whole vibe, no paragraphs, no scrolling, we love an efficient queen 👑 — and that line contains:

• the current time ⏰
• how long the system has been running (the actual uptime, bestie)
• how many users are currently logged on 👥
• the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes 📈

fun fact: this is the exact same info that lives in the header line that w(1) shows you. so if you already know w(1), you already know this, iykyk 🦋

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🌈 okay so what even IS a "load average" 🌈

not me about to explain this because it trips everyone up, bestie, listen:

System load averages = the average number of processes that are either in a runnable state or an uninterruptible state. two flavors, both count:

• a process in a runnable state is either using the CPU or waiting in line to use the CPU 🏃‍♀️
• a process in an uninterruptible state is waiting on some I/O access — eg waiting for disk 💤

and these averages are taken over those three time intervals (1, 5, 15 min, remember?).

⚠️ big important thing, no cap: load averages are not normalized for the number of CPUs in a system. so a load average of 1 means a single CPU system is loaded all the time, while on a 4 CPU system it means it was idle 75% of the time. same number, completely different story. that's the plot twist 🫠

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -c, --container — show the container uptime instead of the system uptime. container girlies rise 🫶
• -p, --pretty — show uptime in pretty format. cute formatting, we stan 💅
• -h, --help — display this help text. the classic, the beloved 🙈
• -r, --raw — display values in a raw format. current time and uptime get shown in seconds. no frills, just numbers 🔢
• -s, --since — system up since, in yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS format. receipts for exactly when she woke up ⏱️
• -V, --version — display version information and exit. and then she leaves, periodt ✌️

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🌱 ENVIRONMENT 🌱

• PROCPS_CONTAINER — if $PROCPS_CONTAINER is set, then uptime behaves as if the --container option has been given. sneaky little auto-flag energy, honestly iconic 🧚

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📁 FILES 📁

• /var/run/utmp — information about who is currently logged on. the guest list 📝
• /proc — process information. where all the ~process lore~ lives 🔍

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

ps(1), top(1), utmp(5), w(1)

go read those too, bestie, they're the friend group 🌈

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💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

found a bug? not the vibe, but okay. please send bug reports to procps@freelists.org. they'll handle it 🫡

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was procps-ng, dated 2024-02-08 — mwah, sending you and your load averages so much love 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅🫶