The Script
Paste this into uptimecheck.sh. Change URL to your site. Schedule with cron and never find out your site was down from a user again.
What this does, line by line
curl -o /dev/null throws away the page content — we don't need it. -s runs silently with no progress bar. -w "%\{http_code\}" prints just the status code. --max-time 10 gives up after 10 seconds so the script doesn't hang forever if the server is unreachable. The if block checks whether the code is 200 and prints accordingly.
HTTP Status Codes — What They Mean
| Code | Meaning | Script behaviour |
|---|---|---|
200 | OK — site is up | Prints check message, exits 0 |
301 / 302 | Redirect — common with HTTP → HTTPS | Fires the warning; add -L to follow redirects |
404 | Page not found | Fires the warning |
500 | Server error | Fires the warning |
000 | No response / timeout | Fires the warning — server completely unreachable |
Your script will trigger the warning for anything that is not 200. A 301 redirect, 404, 500, or complete timeout — all will fire the alert. If your site normally redirects (e.g. HTTP → HTTPS), see the variation below to follow redirects before checking the code.
Step-by-Step Setup
Step 1 — Create the file
Paste the script, then Ctrl+X → Y → Enter to save.
Step 2 — Set your URL
| Variable | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| URL | https://bashsnippets.xyz | Always include https:// — don't just use the domain |
| URL | https://myapp.com/api/health | You can point it at a specific endpoint, not just the homepage |
Step 3 — Make executable and test
You should see: ✓ https://bashsnippets.xyz is up (HTTP 200)
Step 4 — Schedule with cron (every 5 minutes)
Variations
Send an email alert when the site goes down
Handle HTTP → HTTPS redirects correctly
If your site redirects HTTP to HTTPS, curl will see a 301 instead of 200. Add -L to follow the redirect and check the final destination:
Monitor multiple sites at once
Log every check to a file
Common Mistakes
Missing --max-time causes scripts to hang
Without --max-time, curl will wait forever if the server is completely unresponsive. Your cron job will pile up with stuck processes. Always include --max-time 10 or a similar timeout.
Checking HTTP instead of HTTPS returns 301
If you check http://yoursite.com but your site redirects to HTTPS, curl will return 301 (redirect) not 200. Either add -L to follow redirects, or point your URL variable directly at https://yoursite.com.
Email alerts need mailutils installed
The email variation uses the mail command. Install it first: sudo apt install mailutils on Ubuntu/Debian. Test it with: echo "test" | mail -s "test" you@example.com before relying on it for alerts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if a website is up using bash?
Use curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" https://yoursite.com. This returns just the HTTP status code. 200 means up, anything else means a problem. Wrap it in an if statement and schedule with cron for continuous monitoring.
How do I get notified when my website goes down?
Add email alerts using the mail command in the else branch of your status check. Schedule the script with cron every 5 minutes using */5 * * * * ~/uptimecheck.sh. You'll receive an email within 5 minutes of any outage.
What does HTTP 200 mean?
HTTP 200 means OK — the server responded successfully. 301 is a redirect, 404 is not found, 500 is a server error, and a status of 000 means curl couldn't connect at all (timeout or DNS failure).
How do I monitor multiple websites with one bash script?
Put your URLs in a bash array and loop through them. See the "Monitor multiple sites" variation above — each URL gets checked independently and you get a separate status line for each one.
