The uptime is the total amount of time a Linux system has been continuously running since its last restart. Let’s learn how to check Linux uptime using the uptime command.
Display Standard Uptime
To display the system uptime, just open your terminal, 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
Display Uptime in a Pretty Format
If you want to display the uptime in a more readable, pretty format, use the uptime command with the -p command line option.
$ uptime -p up 1 day, 7 hours, 5 minutes
Display Since When the System is Running
If you want to specifically display just the exact date and time since when the Linux system has been running, use the uptime command with the -s command line option.
$ uptime -s 2020-09-14 18:00:05
Check the Version and Help Information
Use the uptime command with the -V command line option to display the version information of the utility.
$ uptime -V uptime from procps-ng 3.3.12
If you need further assistance or want to see all available flags, use the uptime command with the -h command line option to display the help menu.
$ 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).
