Install btop and gotop on Linux

When you’re watching a server and top feels like a relic, two TUI process monitors stand out as modern replacements: btop (actively maintained, C++ rewrite of bashtop/bpytop) and gotop (Go-based, lightweight, single-binary). Both give you CPU, memory, network, disk, and per-process views in one colorful ncurses-style dashboard that runs anywhere a terminal runs.

Original content from computingforgeeks.com - post 2167

This guide installs btop on Rocky Linux 10, AlmaLinux 10, Debian 13, and Ubuntu 24.04, then downloads the gotop binary from its GitHub release since it isn’t packaged on RHEL-family distros.

Tested April 2026 on Rocky Linux 10.1 with btop 1.4.6 from AppStream and gotop 4.2.0 binary release

Why btop first, gotop second

The original gotop project was archived in 2020, then revived as a fork at xxxserxxx/gotop which is what you install today. It’s stable but slow-moving. btop is younger, has GPU monitoring support, better theming, mouse support, and an active upstream. For most people, btop is the right default. gotop still has a niche because its single 6 MB binary has no dependencies, which makes it ideal for containers and busybox-style minimal systems.

Step 1: Install btop

On Rocky Linux 10, AlmaLinux 10, and RHEL 10, btop is in AppStream:

sudo dnf install -y btop

On Debian 13 or Ubuntu 24.04 it’s in the default repos as well:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y btop

Check the version after installing:

btop --version

Rocky 10.1 ships 1.4.6 built with GPU support enabled:

btop version: 1.4.6
Compiled with: g++ (14.3.1)
Configured with: /usr/bin/make STATIC= GPU_SUPPORT=true RSMI_STATIC=

Step 2: Run btop

Launch btop from any terminal. No flags needed on a first run:

btop

The dashboard shows four panels: CPU usage (per-core bars and load averages), memory and swap, network throughput, and processes sorted by CPU. The default theme is dark and the key bindings are:

m: toggle memory panel expansion
p: switch presets (layouts that hide specific panels)
f: filter processes by name
t: toggle tree view of processes
e: expand a selected process to see its full command line
k: kill the selected process (asks for the signal)
q: quit

Press F1 at any time for the full help screen. btop picks up mouse clicks automatically so you can click to sort columns or select a process without touching the keyboard.

Step 3: Themes and config

btop ships with around a dozen built-in themes plus support for user-installed theme files under ~/.config/btop/themes/. Press O (capital letter O) to open the options menu, then navigate to “color theme” with the arrow keys.

The config file lives at ~/.config/btop/btop.conf and is created the first time you run btop. Edit it to persist your preferred theme, graph style, and update interval. A few useful settings:

color_theme = "TTY"
theme_background = False
update_ms = 2000
proc_sorting = "cpu lazy"

The theme_background = False option is handy when you want btop to use your terminal’s own background color instead of drawing its own. Set it once and every btop session respects your terminal theme.

Step 4: Install gotop from GitHub releases

gotop is not packaged for Rocky Linux 10. Grab the latest release binary from GitHub directly. The version detection command pulls the current tag from the API so the install stays current over time:

cd /tmp
GOTOP_VER=$(curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/xxxserxxx/gotop/releases/latest \
  | grep tag_name | head -1 | sed 's/.*"v\([^"]*\)".*/\1/')
echo "Latest gotop: $GOTOP_VER"
curl -sSL -o gotop.tgz \
  "https://github.com/xxxserxxx/gotop/releases/download/v${GOTOP_VER}/gotop_v${GOTOP_VER}_linux_amd64.tgz"
tar -xzf gotop.tgz
sudo mv gotop /usr/local/bin/
gotop --version

On the day this guide was tested the detector resolved to 4.2.0, the current release:

Latest gotop: 4.2.0
gotop v4.2.0 (20220929T182223)

Run it with no arguments for the full dashboard, or pass -l for a layout preset (there are minimal, default, and kitchensink):

gotop
gotop -l minimal

Step 5: Pick one and make it your default

If you like btop, alias it as top in your shell RC so you never think about it again:

echo 'alias top="btop"' >> ~/.bashrc

For Zsh users, add the same line to ~/.zshrc instead. Our Zsh install guide covers the full shell setup.

Wrap up

btop for interactive sessions, gotop for minimal containers, and plain old top when you’re on a box where you don’t control what’s installed. All three give you the same core information; the difference is the UI and the muscle memory. For a broader modern terminal workflow, pair this with our bat installation guide (a cat replacement with syntax highlighting), the ncdu disk usage analyzer, and our dmidecode hardware inventory guide for the other half of a server health audit. On a fresh Rocky 10 box, start from the Rocky 10 post-install tips.