# total time operating



## joe_burban (Oct 2, 2009)

Does anybody know of a way to determine the total number of hours a computer has been up/on/operating -- since new?  Is this information logged anywhere?

In advance,  thx.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 2, 2009)

Open the Terminal, then type:

```
uptime
```
...and press enter.


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## joe_burban (Oct 2, 2009)

-uptime.  Thanx for this tip.

But, I wondered whether there's a way to determine absolute total time that the computer has been up since new (not since restart).


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## Giaguara (Oct 3, 2009)

As in woken from sleep or something?
In Console you could search for *wake*. Maybe the system has waken more recently than it was rebooted...


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## DeltaMac (Oct 3, 2009)

Macs used to record total power-on system time, but that was years ago. I don't think any have done that since the beginning of the PowerPC mdoels, like the PowerMac 6100, etc., or some time in that era (seems like a really long time back, now.) I think even that information was lost if the battery or the hard drive was replaced at some point.

The suggestion about up-time, is just that, System time since the last time the Mac was started/restarted.
My opinion is that computer components/hard drives, etc age even when seldom used, so one way is to check how old the computer is from new. There's software that will determine that within a few months, and some internet sites offer a link where you type in the serial number, and the original month and country of manufacture may be available. It's probably a little inaccurate if you have a refurbished system.

If you provide the model and serial number for your Mac, someone here can dig out that info fairly quickly....


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## artov (Oct 3, 2009)

Command 
	
	



```
ac
```
 might help. For me, "ac av" (av is my account) prints 



> total 299.56



and since my MBP is quite new, it seems about right.

Manual says, that ac prints a record of individual login and logout time. If no user name is given, it prints total time of all active accounts on the system.


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## lbj (Oct 3, 2009)

Coconut battery gives total lifetime. Not sure how accurate.


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## DeltaMac (Oct 3, 2009)

Coconut Battery simply uses an internal database to determine approximately when the Mac was manufacutured, which is available by entering the Mac's serial number. That doesn't read some internal register where total clock hours are stored (there isn't any on any recent Mac)

If the system has not been reinstalled, or reformatted, then that's pretty good. Otherwise, the ac command simply tells you the total length of time for logged in users.
What about folks that use fast user switching, so several accounts are logged in simultaneously? ac would seem to be grossly inaccurate for total computer time in that case.
Again, ac doesn't show total run time, but run time for logged in accounts. I see Macs in school computer labs that may sit much of the day on a log-in screen. Does ac show any time accumulation in that situation?


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## joe_burban (Oct 5, 2009)

DeltaMac and artov:

Thank you for the info.  "ac" is just about what I wanted.


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