btop

Modern, feature-rich resource monitor for the terminal.

Overview

btop (btop++) provides:

• Beautiful UI - Color themes, graphs, braille characters
• Comprehensive metrics - CPU, memory, disk, network, processes
• Mouse support - Click to select, scroll, navigate
• Process management - Kill, nice, filter processes
• Low resource usage - Efficient C++ implementation

Installation

macOS

brew install btop

Linux

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install btop

# Arch
sudo pacman -S btop

# Fedora
sudo dnf install btop

# From source
git clone https://github.com/aristocratos/btop.git
cd btop
make
sudo make install

Verify

btop --version

Basic Usage

# Start btop
btop

# With specific theme
btop --theme adapta

# Low color mode (for limited terminals)
btop --low-color

Navigation

Keyboard Controls

Key	Action
Up/Down/j/k	Navigate processes
Left/Right/h/l	Change sorting column
Enter	Show process details
Space	Mark process
f	Filter processes
t	Tree view toggle
r	Reverse sort order
c	Per-core CPU view
m	Toggle mini mode
q/Esc	Quit

Process Actions

Key	Action
k	Kill process (SIGTERM)
K	Kill process (SIGKILL)
n	Nice (change priority)
i	Toggle idle processes
s	Select signal to send

View Controls

Key	Action
1	Toggle CPU box
2	Toggle memory box
3	Toggle network box
4	Toggle process box
d	Toggle disk IO
g	Toggle GPU (if available)

Configuration

Config Location

Platform	Path
Linux	~/.config/btop/btop.conf
macOS	~/.config/btop/btop.conf

Configuration Options

# ~/.config/btop/btop.conf

# Color theme
color_theme = "adapta"

# UI options
theme_background = True
truecolor = True
force_tty = False
vim_keys = True

# Update interval (ms)
update_ms = 1000

# Graph symbol style
graph_symbol = "braille"  # braille, block, tty

# Process sorting
proc_sorting = "cpu lazy"
proc_reversed = False
proc_tree = False

# Show per-core CPU
cpu_single_graph = False
cpu_bottom = False

# Disk options
show_disks = True
disk_free_prec = 0

# Network options
net_download = 100
net_upload = 100
net_auto = True

# Memory options
mem_graphs = True
show_swap = True
swap_disk = True

# Process options
show_detailed = False
proc_per_core = False
proc_mem_bytes = True
proc_info_smaps = False

Themes

Built-in Themes

btop includes several themes:

• Default - Dark theme
• adapta - Material design inspired
• dracula - Dracula color scheme
• gruvbox_dark - Gruvbox dark
• nord - Nord color scheme
• onedark - Atom One Dark
• solarized_dark - Solarized dark

Change Theme

# Via command line
btop --theme nord

# Or press 'm' in btop to access menu
# Navigate to Options -> Theme

Theme Location

Custom themes: ~/.config/btop/themes/

Create Custom Theme

# ~/.config/btop/themes/custom.theme

# Main colors
theme[main_bg]="#1e1e2e"
theme[main_fg]="#cdd6f4"

# Box colors
theme[title]="#89b4fa"
theme[hi_fg]="#f5c2e7"

# CPU
theme[cpu_box]="#89b4fa"
theme[cpu_graph]="#a6e3a1"

# Memory
theme[mem_box]="#f5c2e7"
theme[mem_graph]="#f38ba8"

# Network
theme[net_box]="#fab387"
theme[net_graph]="#f9e2af"

# Process
theme[proc_box]="#94e2d5"
theme[proc_highlight]="#45475a"

Display Sections

CPU Section

Shows: - Overall CPU usage graph - Per-core usage bars - CPU temperature (if sensors available) - Load averages - Frequency

Toggle per-core: Press c

Memory Section

Shows: - RAM usage graph and percentage - Swap usage (if enabled) - Memory breakdown (used, cached, available)

Disk Section

Shows: - Read/write activity - Usage percentage per disk - IO stats

Toggle: Press d

Network Section

Shows: - Upload/download graphs - Current bandwidth - Total data transferred

Auto-scale: Configure net_auto

Process Section

Shows: - Process list with PID, user, CPU%, MEM% - Command line - Tree view option

Comparison

btop vs htop

Feature	btop	htop
UI	Modern, graphs	Classic
Mouse support	Full	Yes
Themes	Many built-in	Limited
GPU monitoring	Yes	No
Resource usage	Low	Very low
Configuration	File-based	Interactive
Graphs	Yes	Yes

btop vs top

Feature	btop	top
Visual appeal	High	Basic
Ease of use	High	Moderate
Customization	Extensive	Limited
Resource usage	Low	Very low
Availability	Install required	Pre-installed

btop vs glances

Feature	btop	glances
UI	Terminal native	Terminal/Web
Resource usage	Low	Higher
Remote monitoring	No	Yes
Export formats	No	Yes
Docker integration	No	Yes

Tips and Tricks

Quick Filtering

Press f and type to filter processes:

# Filter by name
f → nginx

# Filter by user
f → user:www-data

# Filter by PID
f → pid:1234

Kill Multiple Processes

1. Press Space to mark processes
2. Navigate and mark more
3. Press k or K to kill all marked

Mini Mode

Press m for compact view - useful for small terminals or tmux panes.

Preset Views

Key	View
p → 1	Default
p → 2	Minimal
p → 3	Detailed

Mouse Usage

• Click process: Select
• Double-click: Show details
• Scroll: Navigate list
• Right-click: Context menu

Troubleshooting

No Colors

# Check terminal color support
echo $TERM

# Force truecolor
btop --truecolor

# Or low-color mode
btop --low-color

No GPU Information

GPU monitoring requires: - NVIDIA: nvidia-smi - AMD: rocm-smi or radeontop - Intel: intel_gpu_top

High CPU Usage

# Increase update interval
# Edit ~/.config/btop/btop.conf
update_ms = 2000  # Update every 2 seconds

No Temperature Sensors

# Linux - install lm-sensors
sudo apt install lm-sensors
sudo sensors-detect

# macOS - requires root for some sensors
sudo btop

Shell Integration

Aliases

# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

# Quick system check
alias sys='btop'

# Minimal view
alias sysm='btop --preset 2'

# Specific theme
alias sysd='btop --theme dracula'

tmux Integration

# Start btop in new tmux pane
tmux split-window -h btop

# Or in new window
tmux new-window btop

See Also

• Process Management - Process control
• Modern Replacements - CLI alternatives
• tmux - Terminal multiplexer