btop

Updated

September 4, 2026

Overview

btop is a modern, interactive resource monitor with a polished TUI: CPU (often per-core with clocks/temps when available), memory, disks, network, and a process list. It sits in the same family as htop and bashtop/bpytop, with a denser visual layout.

sudo apt install btop    # Debian/Ubuntu when packaged
sudo dnf install btop
# or install from upstream releases if your distro lags

Syntax

btop [options]

Common Options

Option Description
-lc, --low-color 16-color / limited terminals
-t, --tty Force tty-friendly mode (check --help on your build)
--utf-force Force UTF-8 drawing
-p, --preset N Start with layout preset
-u, --update MS Refresh rate in milliseconds
-h, --help Help

Exact flags vary slightly by version—run btop -h.

Interactive Keybindings (typical)

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Move process selection
Enter Process details / options
f Filter processes
m Memory-related layout toggle
p Process sort / panel focus (version-dependent)
k or signal menu Kill / send signal to selected process
t Tree view (if enabled in version)
FF2 / preset keys Cycle presets
Esc / q Back / quit
? or h Help overlay

If a key does nothing, open the in-app help—bindings are configurable.

Key Use Cases

  1. At-a-glance host health on a jump box
  2. Spot CPU steal, memory pressure, or disk saturation visually
  3. Find and signal runaway processes without remembering ps pipelines
  4. Live network throughput per interface

Examples with Explanations

Start defaults

btop

Low-color SSH / serial console

btop --low-color
# or
btop -lc

Faster or slower refresh

btop -u 500
btop -u 2000

One-liner recipes

# Prefer btop when available, else htop, else top
command -v btop >/dev/null && btop || command -v htop >/dev/null && htop || top

# Record a note of load while viewing (separate terminal)
while true; do printf '%s %s\n' "$(date -Iseconds)" "$(cat /proc/loadavg)"; sleep 5; done

Notes & Pitfalls

  • Remote SSH: needs a reasonable terminal (xterm-256color, width). Tiny terminals break layout—use -lc or resize.
  • Sensors/temps: may need lm-sensors configured; containers often lack host sensors.
  • Permissions: process details and some disk stats are richer as root but daily use as normal user is fine.
  • Not a logger: for historical metrics use Prometheus node exporter, Netdata, or sar.
  • Config usually lives under ~/.config/btop/—back it up if you customize themes heavily.

2026-relevant notes

  • btop is a strong default interactive monitor; keep htop for muscle memory and top for universal availability on rescue images.
  • On servers, pair TUI tools with journalctl -f, ss -lntp, and dmesg -T rather than expecting one dashboard to explain outages.
  • In Kubernetes/node shells, metrics may reflect the container cgroup, not the whole node—interpret carefully.

Comparison to alternatives

Tool Notes
btop Modern TUI, visual meters
htop Ubiquitous interactive process focus
top Always there, minimal
glances Cross-platform, optional web UI
btm / zenith Other modern Rust/Go monitors

Additional Resources

  • Upstream btop README for install and themes
  • man btop when packaged