Table of Contents
Using the uptime command
Alternative methods
Home System Tutorial LINUX Linux how to check system uptime

Linux how to check system uptime

Aug 16, 2025 pm 01:03 PM

Using the uptime command is the easiest way to view the running time of the Linux system. It will display the current time, the system has been running, the number of logged-in users and the system load; the specific steps are: 1. Enter uptime in the terminal and view the complete information such as "14:32:10 up 5:23, 1 user, load average: 0.15, 0.10, 0.05"; 2. Use uptime -p to display the running time, such as "up 5 hours, 23 minutes"; 3. Use uptime -s to view the system startup time, such as "2024-04-01 09:09:00"; in addition, you can also view the running time and idle time in seconds through cat /proc/uptime, or convert the seconds into a readable startup time with the date command, such as "echo "System booted: $(d -d @$(cut -f1 -d' ' /proc/uptime))" 2>/dev/null", so the uptime command is the preferred method for all Linux distributions due to its versatility and ease of use.

Linux how to check system uptime

To check system uptime in Linux, you can use the uptime command. It's a simple and straightforward way to see how long the system has been running.

Using the uptime command

Open a terminal and type:

 uptime

This will output something like:

 14:32:10 up 5:23, 1 user, load average: 0.15, 0.10, 0.05

Here's what each part means:

  • 14:32:10 – current time
  • up 5:23 – system has been running for 5 hours and 23 minutes
  • 1 user – one user is currently logged in
  • load average – system load over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes

If you only want to see the uptime duration without other details, you can use:

 uptime -p

Which outputs:

 up 5 hours, 23 minutes

Or for a more machine-readable format:

 uptime -s

This shows when the system was last booted:

 2024-04-01 09:09:00

Alternative methods

You can also check uptime by reading the /proc/uptime file:

 cat /proc/uptime

This shows two numbers:

  • First number: uptime in seconds (including fractions)
  • Second number: time spent in idle mode

Example:

 19380.45 18025.30

That means the system has been up for about 19,380 seconds (~5h 23m).

For a human-readable boot time, you can combine it with other commands:

 echo "System booted: $(date -d @$(cut -f1 -d' ' /proc/uptime))" 2>/dev/null

This uses the uptime value as a Unix timestamp to calculate the boot time.

So in short, uptime is the easiest and most common way. It's available on all Linux distributions by default.

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