How to Check Htop Version in Linux

This article provides a quick guide on how to display the version information for htop, a popular interactive process viewer for Linux. It covers the specific command-line options available, explains how to interpret the output, and offers alternative methods to check the installed version if the standard commands are not accessible.

The Short Answer

To check the version of htop currently installed on your system, open your terminal and run either of the following commands:

htop --version

or

htop -v

Understanding the Output

When you execute the command, the terminal will return a concise, single-line output indicating the program name and its exact version number. For example:

htop 3.3.0

Knowing this version number is highly beneficial when troubleshooting performance issues, verifying if your system has the latest security patches, or ensuring compatibility with specific configuration options that may have been introduced in newer releases.

Alternative Methods to Verify Htop Version

If you are working in an environment where you cannot execute the binary directly, or if you want to check the package version via your system’s package manager, you can use one of the following commands depending on your Linux distribution:

apt show htop
rpm -q htop
pacman -Qi htop

These package management commands will not only display the version number but will also provide additional metadata, such as the build date, the maintainer, and a brief description of the utility.