bashtop

bashtop [OPTIONS]

--help
    Displays the help message and exits.

--version
    Shows the program's version information and exits.

--compact_mode
    Launches bashtop in a compact layout, optimized for smaller terminal windows or less information density.

--theme <name>
    Specifies a custom theme to use. The theme file must be present in the themes directory (e.g., ~/.config/bashtop/themes/).

--debug
    Enables debug logging for troubleshooting purposes, writing logs to a file.

bashtop is a powerful and visually appealing resource monitor designed for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD. Written entirely in Bash, it offers a comprehensive and interactive terminal user interface (TUI) to display various system metrics. Users can monitor CPU and memory usage, disk I/O, network activity, and a detailed list of running processes. Its key features include an easily customizable UI with multiple themes, a process list that supports filtering, sorting, and sending signals, and graphs for visual representation of resource usage. While similar to tools like top and htop, bashtop provides a more modern and user-friendly experience directly in the terminal, making it popular for those who prefer an aesthetically pleasing and information-rich dashboard.

bashtop is no longer actively maintained. Its development has transitioned to successors like bpytop (Python) and most notably btop (Rust), which offer improved performance and continued development. While still functional, users might find better performance and more up-to-date features in its newer counterparts.

bashtop's behavior and appearance are highly configurable via a configuration file, typically located at ~/.config/bashtop/bashtop.conf. This file allows users to set preferences such as update intervals, default sorting for processes, visible modules, and CPU temperature sensor paths.

The strength of bashtop lies in its interactive terminal interface, controlled by various keybindings. Users can navigate through different sections, sort processes, filter results, send signals to processes, and change settings on the fly. Pressing '?' within bashtop displays a comprehensive list of available keybindings for interactive control.

bashtop was created by Aristocrats, aiming to provide a visually rich and interactive resource monitor written purely in Bash. It gained significant popularity around 2019-2020 for its unique approach and aesthetic appeal. Its success led to the development of bpytop (a Python rewrite) to address some performance and maintainability limitations inherent in Bash scripting. Subsequently, btop (a Rust rewrite) was developed, which is now the primary actively developed project in this lineage. bashtop effectively served as the foundational proof-of-concept for this family of modern terminal monitors.

top(1), htop(1), btop(1), bpytop(1), glances(1)