btop

Start btop

$ btop

$ btop [[-p|--preset]] [0..9]

$ btop [[-t|--tty]]

$ btop [[-l|--low-color]]

$ btop [[-u|--update]] 500

$ <q>

$ btop [[-h|--help]]

btop [OPTIONS]

--help
    Show help message and exit.

--version
    Show version information and exit.

--config <path>
    Specify a custom configuration file path.

--debug
    Enable debug logging.

--low-color
    Force 256-color mode for terminals with limited true color support.

--tty-mode
    Run in TTY mode, useful for consoles without full VT100/Xterm support.

btop is a modern, interactive, and highly customizable resource monitor for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD. It serves as a next-generation alternative to traditional tools like top and htop, offering a visually rich and user-friendly interface.

Written in C++, btop provides superior performance compared to its predecessors, bpytop and bashtop, which were written in Python and Bash respectively. It displays various system metrics including CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, network activity, and a comprehensive process list.

Key features include full mouse support, customizable menus, process management (kill, renice), detailed stat views, multiple themes, and a responsive interface that adapts to terminal size. Its graphical representation of data makes it easy to quickly grasp system health at a glance, making it an excellent tool for system administrators and power users alike.

While generally efficient, btop requires a modern terminal emulator with true color support for its full visual fidelity. On very old or minimal systems, its advanced graphical features might be slightly resource-intensive compared to basic tools like top. It is not pre-installed on most distributions and requires manual installation.

btop offers a rich set of features beyond basic monitoring. These include:
- Full mouse support for navigation and interaction.
- Customizable UI elements and comprehensive theme support.
- Advanced process management capabilities (kill, renice, search, filter).
- Detailed stats for CPU, memory, disks, network, and processes.
- Auto-scaling graphs for network and disk usage.
- Ability to save and load custom configurations.

btop is typically installed via system package managers (e.g., apt install btop, dnf install btop, pacman -S btop). It can also be compiled from source for systems where a pre-built package is not available or for users who prefer the latest development version.

btop is the C++ rewrite of bpytop, which itself was a Python rewrite of the original bashtop (a Bash script). The project was initiated by Aristocratos with the goal of creating a faster and more efficient system monitor while retaining the modern user interface and features of its predecessors. The C++ rewrite significantly improved performance and reduced resource consumption, making btop a robust and popular choice for system monitoring.

top(1), htop(1), glances(1), nmon(1), bashtop(1), bpytop(1)