aristocratos/btop

btop showing hostname somewhere noticable?

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#1605 opened on Apr 11, 2026

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featuregood first issue

Description

Seen a post asking sysadmins "What’s your first command when a Linux box feels off?"

Of course I knew my answer is btop but the top answer was hostname, obviously to make sure we sshed in to the right box.

And since btop has covered most of the other answers like df, uptime, ps,...

I wonder if hostname should maybe not be somewhere in the interface. Maybe next to the clock at the top, or somewhere around uptime. With max length set, to have predictable width.

One con I thought of is that people use btop for screenshots and maybe they might prefer not to show hostname...

so just an idea..

Contributor guide

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Familiarity with btop codebaseC++ basicsUnderstanding of UI components
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
Investigate where to place hostname in btop's interface. Look at the top bar near the clock or uptime area in src/btop.cpp. Consider adding a configuration option to show/hide hostname. Check existing discussion in issue comments for preferred placement. Ensure max length is set to keep width predictable.