how to check ram usage in linux...

trist007 · 01-04-2010, 09:02 PM

I am running Slackware 13.0. I am aware of free -m, vmstat, top, etc. However, none of these programs display how much ram each program is using. Is there a program that displays how much ram each program is using? I run a headless so I'd need a program that runs in CLI.

I know that top command shows %MEM (only two programs were using 0.1%MEM) but after running free -m I only have a total of 400 MB ram left out of my 1.5 GB of ram. Where is all that lost ram?

Tinkster · 01-04-2010, 09:12 PM

Why don't you post the output of e.g. top here in code tags?

nimnull22 · 01-04-2010, 09:18 PM

free -m shows memory:

total used free shared buffers cached

So what is your question?

evo2 · 01-04-2010, 09:19 PM

By default top sorts by cpu usage. If you have not tried already it may be useful to get top to sort by memory usage.

Inside top, type "<Shift>-f" then type "n", then type "<Enter>".

Cheers,

Evo2.

trist007 · 01-04-2010, 11:02 PM

Ah yes, top did it, thanks Evo. VIRT is the ram in KB correct?

I am trying to get how much KB of RAM each program is using, not necessarily percentage, which could be calculated but I want convenience hehe.

evo2 · 01-04-2010, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trist007

Ah yes, top did it, thanks Evo. VIRT is the ram in KB correct?

From the man page:

Code:

      o: VIRT  --  Virtual Image (kb)
          The total amount of virtual memory used by the task.  It includes all code, data and shared libraries plus pages that have been swapped out.

          VIRT = SWAP + RES.

so yes it seems so.

Cheers,

Evo2.

syg00 · 01-05-2010, 12:06 AM

Probably of more interest might be RSS. For this sort of thing I find it easiest to run through /proc/*/stat and pull out what I want with awk.

Code:

echo -e "RSS\t\tName\n---\t\t----" ; for i in /proc/*/stat ; do awk '{print $24" \t:\t" $2}' $i 2>/dev/null ; done | sort -nr | head -n 10

Hendronicus · 01-05-2010, 12:18 AM

There is a program called htop that might do what you want. If you run it as super-user it can do quite a bit of task management as well.

Hendronicus · 01-05-2010, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trist007

I am running Slackware 13.0. I am aware of free -m, vmstat, top, etc. However, none of these programs display how much ram each program is using. Is there a program that displays how much ram each program is using? I run a headless so I'd need a program that runs in CLI.

I know that top command shows %MEM (only two programs were using 0.1%MEM) but after running free -m I only have a total of 400 MB ram left out of my 1.5 GB of ram. Where is all that lost ram?

I just re-read your question and I would venture to guess that your "lost" RAM is actually cache + shared libs. Linux, by default, caches every single disk access up to available RAM and then releases it back if programs need it. There are ways to turn off this behavior but you probably don't want to.

AlucardZero · 01-05-2010, 08:29 AM

http://www.linuxatemyram.com/