What is the purpose of the uptime command in Linux?

The uptime command is used to display the system’s running time and average load. It provides the following information:

1. Current time: displays the current system time.
2. Uptime: Displays the amount of time the system has been running since the last restart.
3. Number of users: Indicates the current number of users logged into the system.
4. Average load: displays the average load on the system over the past 1 minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes.

By examining the average load, one can assess the level of busyness within the system. A high average load may indicate insufficient system resources, requiring optimization or the addition of hardware resources.