# bottom — Beautiful Cross-Platform System Monitor in Rust

> bottom (btm) is a customizable, cross-platform graphical system monitor for the terminal. It displays CPU, memory, network, disk, temperature, and process information with interactive charts — a modern alternative to top, htop, and btop.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# bottom — Beautiful Cross-Platform System Monitor in Rust

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install bottom
brew install bottom
# Or: cargo install bottom
# Or: sudo apt install bottom

# Run
btm

# With specific update rate
btm --rate 500  # update every 500ms

# Minimal mode
btm --basic

# Show specific widgets only
btm --default_widget_type proc
```

## Introduction
bottom is a terminal system monitor that combines the information of top, htop, and iotop into a single, beautiful interface. Built in Rust with Ratatui, it provides interactive charts for CPU, memory, network, and disk usage alongside a searchable process list with tree view.

With over 13,000 GitHub stars, bottom stands out for its cross-platform support (Linux, macOS, Windows), extensive customization via TOML config, and intuitive keyboard/mouse navigation.

## What bottom Does
bottom provides real-time visualization of system resources: CPU usage per core, memory and swap usage, network I/O, disk I/O, temperatures (where available), and a process table with search, sort, and tree view. All displayed as interactive terminal charts.

## Architecture Overview
```
[bottom (btm)]
Rust + Ratatui + crossterm
        |
+-------+-------+-------+
|       |       |       |
[CPU]   [Memory] [Network]
Per-core RAM/Swap Upload/
usage   usage    Download
charts  charts   charts
        |
+-------+-------+-------+
|       |       |       |
[Disk]  [Temp]  [Process]
Read/   CPU/GPU Table with
Write   sensors search,
I/O     temps   sort, tree
```

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
```toml
# ~/.config/bottom/bottom.toml
[flags]
rate = 1000          # Update rate in ms
default_widget_type = "proc"
hide_avg_cpu = false
color = "gruvbox"
temperature_type = "celsius"
enable_gpu = true

# Custom layout
[[row]]
  [[row.child]]
    type = "cpu"
  [[row.child]]
    type = "mem"
[[row]]
  [[row.child]]
    type = "net"
  [[row.child]]
    type = "disk"
[[row]]
  [[row.child]]
    type = "proc"
    default = true
```

## Key Features
- **Interactive Charts** — CPU, memory, network, disk as live graphs
- **Process Manager** — search, sort, filter, tree view, kill processes
- **Cross-Platform** — Linux, macOS, and Windows support
- **GPU Monitoring** — NVIDIA and AMD GPU utilization (where available)
- **Custom Layouts** — configure widget arrangement via TOML
- **Color Themes** — built-in themes (gruvbox, nord, etc.) and custom colors
- **Mouse Support** — click and scroll to interact with widgets
- **Battery** — battery status and charge level display

## Comparison with Similar Tools
| Feature | bottom (btm) | btop | htop | glances | Netdata |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Rust | C++ | C | Python | C |
| Platform | Linux, macOS, Win | Linux, macOS | Linux, macOS | Cross-platform | Linux, macOS |
| GPU Monitoring | Yes | Yes | No | Via plugin | Yes |
| Charts | Yes (interactive) | Yes | No (bars) | No | Yes (web) |
| Custom Layout | TOML config | Theme config | No | No | Dashboard |
| Mouse Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (web) |
| Resource Usage | Very Low | Low | Very Low | Moderate | Moderate |

## FAQ
**Q: bottom vs btop vs htop — which should I use?**
A: bottom for interactive charts and Windows support. btop for the most beautiful TUI with GPU monitoring. htop for a lightweight, universal process viewer. All three are excellent.

**Q: How do I kill a process?**
A: Navigate to the process table, select a process, press dd (Vim-style) or Delete to send SIGTERM. Press dd again on the confirmation to send SIGKILL.

**Q: Can I use bottom over SSH?**
A: Yes. bottom works in any terminal, including SSH sessions. It adapts to the terminal size and uses minimal bandwidth.

**Q: How do I customize the layout?**
A: Edit ~/.config/bottom/bottom.toml and define [[row]] and [[row.child]] sections to arrange widgets. Each child specifies a widget type (cpu, mem, net, disk, proc, temp).

## Sources
- GitHub: https://github.com/ClementTsang/bottom
- Documentation: https://clementtsang.github.io/bottom
- Created by Clement Tsang
- License: MIT

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Author: AI Open Source