Tuptime - Tool to Display Uptime History of Linux System

 | Updated March 19, 2021 | Categories Tutorials

The primary task of the system administrators is monitoring and examine Linux system and how long its been promenade. This article demonstrates use of Tuptime tool that help's System Administrators to analyse how long Linux machine is up and running.

Tuptime tool counts accidental system restarts and not just only uptime of system. When tuptime is installed on system it registers first boot time after installation. Once the first boot time is registered from there onwards it checks for system tuptime and downtime and represents it in Percentage (%). Tuptime also registers current tuptime of system from last restart. Reports Largest Running system Time, Shortest Running System Time & Average of both.

Lets start with installation and drive down deep understanding different options available. The below installation is performed on Ubuntu 18.04 and it should work on Centos 7 as well.

Note:  This installation needs python 3.X and above version.

Tuptime Installation

Installing tuptime is simple as copying and pasting the directory. Yes, four simple commands and installation is done.

$ sudo git clone https://github.com/rfrail3/tuptime.git

Copy executable files. from "/src/tuptime" to "/usr/bin/tuptime" and change the permissions to executable only for all users except root.

$ sudo cp tuptime/src/tuptime /usr/bin/tuptime
$ sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/tuptime

Copy cron.d directory from "tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime" to "tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime" and change permissions for user

$ sudo cp tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime /etc/cron.d/tuptime
$ sudo chmod 644 /etc/cron.d/tuptime

Add Tuptime user

Tuptime does not run as a daemon process, it needs execution when the init manager or system Admin startup and shutdown the system.

$ sudo useradd -d /var/lib/tuptime -s /bin/sh tuptime
$ sudo chown -R tuptime:tuptime /var/lib/tuptime

Running Tuptime

Check for system type

To check if system is systemd or init.. use 'ps 1' command.

$ ps 1
For systemd systems:
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        Ss     0:07 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 21

For init systems:
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        Ss     0:06 /sbin/init splash

Add service Manually

If system is systemd.. Add service manually:

$ sudo cp tuptime/src/systemd/tuptime.service /lib/systemd/system
$ sudo chmod 644 /lib/systemd/system/tuptime.service
$ sudo systemctl enable tuptime.service

Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/tuptime.service to /lib/systemd/system/tuptime.service.

### OR ###

If system is init.. Add service manually:

$ sudo cp tuptime/src/init.d/debian/tuptime /etc/init.d/tuptime
$ sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tuptime
$ sudo update-rc.d tuptime defaults
$ sudo /etc/init.d/tuptime start

After service is been added run and check for system reports using simple command "tuptime". this commands shows different values representing when system was started, any unwanted system shutdowns from the date. System uptime and downtime in % and hours count. Largest, Shortest & Average uptime as well as downtime of system.

$ tuptime

Enumerate system life as list

$ tuptime -l
Startup:  1  at  05:57:06   Monday 16 April 2018
Uptime:   1 hour, 39 minutes and 31 seconds

Know your kernel version using "-K" option. kernel information is shown for each reports.

$ tuptime -k

Below commands shows the system start time in specified format %d for day, %m for Month & %y for Year to show time we use %M,%M,%S respectively for Hours, Minutes & Seconds

$ tuptime -d %d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S

to check database file use "FILE, --filedb=FILE or -f". Below is example showing for tuptime.db

$ tuptime -f var/lib/tuptime/tuptime.db

Looking for sending the output to someone else, tuptime has the feature that can export output directly to .csv file using "-c or --csv". Try yourself this is exciting.

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3 Comments... add one

  1. You have a small error
    $ sudo cp tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime
    Should be

    $ sudo sudo cp tuptime/src/cron.d/tuptime /etc/cron.d/tuptime

    Other than that, looks good.
    Thank you for the nice article.

    Reply

  2. Great article. What I am looking for is a way, to set the 'system life' counter of tuptime to, let's say, 2 years. Any clue how this could be established?

    Reply

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