newbie free question

masenko703 · 07-15-2009, 08:58 PM

Hi guyz,
Can someone explain the free command to me and show me how to tell if the RAM is being used completely.

[12:10pm]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3010 2984 25 0 14 2317
-/+ buffers/cache: 652 2357
Swap: 1992 0 1992

Based on the above, show 2984 being used and 25 free but below that is -/+buffers/cache with 652 being used and 2357 being free? can anyone point me in the right direction as to what to look for? Thanks!!

stress_junkie · 07-15-2009, 09:04 PM

Code:

man free

jhwilliams · 07-15-2009, 09:19 PM

Yea, rtfm like the guy above said. But also:

Code:

jameson@salmon:~$free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3886       1720       2166          0        146        759
-/+ buffers/cache:        814       3071
Swap:         7632          0       7632

Those are the ones that matter, really. -m puts the values in megabytes. Linux caches stuff with free memory space and if you run out of memory for important stuff the caches get flushed. The man page doesn't really explain that.

masenko703 · 07-15-2009, 10:35 PM

Thanks!!!

hadrix · 07-16-2009, 01:44 AM

i didnt notice that. thanks for the info!