On Wed, 18 Feb 2015, Darryl Perry wrote to Markus Reschke:

 MR>  DP> I'd love to force a reinstall of procps, but I can't find
 MR>  DP> the proper command to do so.
 MR> 
 MR> apt-get --reinstall install procps
 MR> 
 MR> Don't you read man pages? ;)

 DP> Read all the help commands, but that one got lost in the shuffle. 

 DP> root@debian:~# apt-get --reinstall install procps

the first i find is uptimed which is a daemon used for tracking uptime...

https://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&keywords=uptime

===== snip =====
package uptimed (1:0.3.17-3.1)

utility to track high uptimes - daemon

The uptime daemon tracks a system's highest uptimes via boot IDs, using the
system boot time to keep sessions apart from each other. It features a console
program to display statistics, and can send mail if a milestone or a new record
is reached.
===== snip =====

but then the next link in my search results takes me to 

https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/i386/procps/filelist

where /usr/bin/uptime is listed as being available... it also exists in both of
my i386, ia64 and amd64 VMs...

does your path statement contain /usr/bin in it? that's where the uptime
program should reside...


)\/(ark