How to check Linux uptime?

The uptime is the amount of time the Linux system has been continuously running since the last restart. Let’s learn how to check Linux uptime using the uptime command.

To display uptime, just type uptime and press enter. Root privileges are not necessary to perform this check.

$ uptime
01:02:00 up 1 day,  7:01,  1 user,  load average: 0.12, 0.09, 0.05

If you want to display the uptime in pretty format, use the uptime command with -p command line option.

$ uptime -p
up 1 day, 7 hours, 5 minutes

If you want to specifically display just the date and time since when the Linux system has been running, use the uptime command with -s command line option.

$ uptime -s
2020-09-14 18:00:05

Use the uptime command with -V command line option to display the version information.

$ uptime -V
uptime from procps-ng 3.3.12

Use the uptime command with -h command line option to display help.

$ uptime -h

Usage:
 uptime [options]

Options:
 -p, --pretty   show uptime in pretty format
 -h, --help     display this help and exit
 -s, --since    system up since
 -V, --version  output version information and exit

For more details see uptime(1).

Learn more Linux tips.