xenial (1) free.1.gz

Provided by: procps_3.3.10-4ubuntu2.5_amd64 bug

NAME

       free - Display amount of free and used memory in the system

SYNOPSIS

       free [options]

DESCRIPTION

       free  displays  the  total amount of free and used physical and swap memory in the system, as well as the
       buffers and caches used by the  kernel.  The  information  is  gathered  by  parsing  /proc/meminfo.  The
       displayed columns are:

       total  Total installed memory (MemTotal and SwapTotal in /proc/meminfo)

       used   Used memory (calculated as total - free - buffers - cache)

       free   Unused memory (MemFree and SwapFree in /proc/meminfo)

       shared Memory  used  (mostly) by tmpfs (Shmem in /proc/meminfo, available on kernels 2.6.32, displayed as
              zero if not available)

       buffers
              Memory used by kernel buffers (Buffers in /proc/meminfo)

       cache  Memory used by the page cache and slabs (Cached and Slab in /proc/meminfo)

       buff/cache
              Sum of buffers and cache

       available
              Estimation of how much memory is available for starting new applications, without swapping. Unlike
              the  data  provided by the cache or free fields, this field takes into account page cache and also
              that not all reclaimable memory slabs will be reclaimed due to items being in use (MemAvailable in
              /proc/meminfo, available on kernels 3.14, emulated on kernels 2.6.27+, otherwise the same as free)

OPTIONS

       -b, --bytes
              Display the amount of memory in bytes.

       -k, --kilo
              Display the amount of memory in kilobytes.  This is the default.

       -m, --mega
              Display the amount of memory in megabytes.

       -g, --giga
              Display the amount of memory in gigabytes.

       --tera Display the amount of memory in terabytes.

       -h, --human
              Show  all output fields automatically scaled to shortest three digit unit and display the units of
              print out.  Following units are used.

                B = bytes
                K = kilos
                M = megas
                G = gigas
                T = teras

              If unit is missing, and you have petabyte of RAM or swap, the number is in terabytes  and  columns
              might not be aligned with header.

       -w, --wide
              Switch  to  the  wide  mode.  The wide mode produces lines longer than 80 characters. In this mode
              buffers and cache are reported in two separate columns.

       -c, --count count
              Display the result count times.  Requires the -s option.

       -l, --lohi
              Show detailed low and high memory statistics.

       -s, --seconds seconds
              Continuously display the result delay seconds apart.  You may actually specify any floating  point
              number for delay, usleep(3) is used for microsecond resolution delay times.

       --si   Use power of 1000 not 1024.

       -t, --total
              Display a line showing the column totals.

       --help Print help.

       -V, --version
              Display version information.

FILES

       /proc/meminfo
              memory information

SEE ALSO

       ps(1), slabtop(1), top(1), vmstat(8).

AUTHORS

       Written by Brian Edmonds.

REPORTING BUGS

       Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org