upower is a system utility for Linux-based systems that provides power and battery information and statistics. It is designed to work with devices that use batteries, such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices. upower provides a convenient way to access information about power sources, battery state, and energy consumption.
Some of the information that upower provides includes:
- The status of the battery, such as whether it is charging, discharging, or fully charged.
- The battery’s charge level as a percentage.
- The estimated time remaining until the battery is fully charged or discharged.
- The number of cycles the battery has gone through.
- The battery’s design and current capacity.
- The device’s power supply status and properties.
upower is typically used as a command-line utility, although it also has a DBus API that can be used by other applications.
If you encounter the below error while running the command upower:
upower: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install upower |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install upower |
| Alpine | apk add upower |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S upower |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install upower |
| CentOS | yum install upower |
| Fedora | dnf install upower |
| Raspbian | apt-get install upower |
upower Command Examples
1. Display power and battery information:
# upower --dump
2. List all power devices:
# upower --enumerate
3. Watch for and print power status changes:
# upower --monitor
4. Watch for and print detailed power status changes:
# upower --monitor-detail
5. Display version:
# upower --version
Summary
upower is often used in conjunction with other system utilities and desktop environments to provide users with information about their device’s power status. For example, it is commonly used in GNOME and other desktop environments to display battery status information in the system tray or menu bar.
In summary, upower is a system utility that provides information and statistics about power sources and batteries in Linux-based systems. It is a useful tool for monitoring battery health, estimating battery life, and managing power consumption on portable devices.