There are many ways to view memory usage information in Linux
, but the most common methods which are available in most Linux
distribution without requiring installation of additional applications are free
and top
.
Both free
and top
are command-line tools and can be run from the terminal.
Display memory usage information in Linux:
free
. $ free total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 2013428 999352 113610 6188 900376 842184 Swap: 969960 524 969436
free
in human readable format. $ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 1.9Gi 976Mi 111Mi 6.0Mi 879Mi 822Mi Swap: 947Mi 0.0Ki 946Mi
More options for free
command:
$ free --help Usage: free [options] Options: -b, --bytes show output in bytes --kilo show output in kilobytes --mega show output in megabytes --giga show output in gigabytes --tera show output in terabytes --peta show output in petabytes -k, --kibi show output in kibibytes -m, --mebi show output in mebibytes -g, --gibi show output in gibibytes --tebi show output in tebibytes --pebi show output in pebibytes -h, --human show human-readable output --si use powers of 1000 not 1024 -l, --lohi show detailed low and high memory statistics -t, --total show total for RAM + swap -s N, --seconds N repeat printing every N seconds -c N, --count N repeat printing N times, then exit -w, --wide wide output --help display this help and exit -V, --version output version information and exit For more details see free(1).
top
. $ top -n1 -o %MEM top - 16:25:49 up 40 min, 2 users, load average: 0.08, 0.23, 0.34 Tasks: 281 total, 1 running, 280 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 5.9 us, 17.6 sy, 0.0 ni, 76.5 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 1966.2 total, 108.4 free, 975.9 used, 881.9 buff/cache MiB Swap: 947.2 total, 946.7 free, 0.5 used. 822.1 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1511 user 20 0 2575320 203944 87640 S 0.0 10.1 0:44.31 gnome-shell 1931 user 20 0 777408 119956 36288 S 0.0 6.0 0:03.91 gnome-software 2385 user 20 0 1393488 99916 54312 S 0.0 5.0 1:04.11 rhythmbox 2054 user 20 0 1043436 97064 44896 S 0.0 4.8 0:09.76 streamtuner2 1745 user 20 0 803280 56900 45324 S 0.0 2.8 0:00.44 evolution-alarm 1374 user 20 0 259016 54708 32968 S 0.0 2.7 0:15.65 Xorg 1930 user 20 0 986610 45828 33144 S 0.0 2.3 0:04.31 gnome-terminal- 1933 user 20 0 702652 39440 25932 S 0.0 2.0 0:00.31 seahorse 1771 user 20 0 344420 37420 29520 S 0.0 1.9 0:03.53 vmtoolsd 1788 user 20 0 750852 33624 28984 S 0.0 1.7 0:00.31 evolution-calen 1589 user 20 0 628356 32944 27610 S 0.0 1.6 0:00.12 goa-daemon 1801 user 20 0 695356 30780 27012 S 0.0 1.5 0:00.06 evolution-addre 2341 user 20 0 518056 29224 22776 S 0.0 1.5 0:00.29 update-notifier 1610 user 20 0 499596 28968 24656 S 0.0 1.4 0:00.12 evolution-sourc 641 root 20 0 676140 27736 13008 S 0.0 1.4 0:03.15 snapd 411 root 19 -1 58116 27384 25840 S 0.0 1.4 0:01.77 systemd-journal 1553 user 20 0 295756 26080 16944 S 0.0 1.3 0:00.77 ibus-extension- 1647 user 20 0 925768 25924 18964 S 0.0 1.3 0:00.48 gsd-media-keys 1660 user 20 0 515152 24880 18260 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.28 gsd-color 1640 user 20 0 369336 24764 18168 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.24 gsd-power 1666 user 20 0 367312 24732 17764 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.31 gsd-xsettings 1746 user 20 0 472812 23856 11652 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.25 tracker-store 1638 user 20 0 366800 23796 17368 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.23 gsd-keyboard 1557 user 20 0 218820 23624 17328 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.22 ibus-x11 1576 user 20 0 518380 23408 20332 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.09 gnome-shell-cal 1654 user 20 0 294528 23128 16672 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.22 gsd-wacom 1652 user 20 0 218360 22776 16488 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.75 gsd-clipboard 771 root 20 0 131004 21936 13820 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.31 unattended-upgr 1752 user 39 19 519912 21832 14252 S 0.0 1.1 0:00.17 tracker-miner-f 2034 root 20 0 389564 20808 17412 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.23 fwupd 1592 user 9 -11 2217220 19200 15460 S 5.9 1.0 2:47.65 pulseaudio 612 root 20 0 52112 18992 10972 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.23 networkd-dispat 632 root 20 0 424316 18976 16120 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.51 NetworkManager 1761 user 39 19 661240 18916 11748 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.15 tracker-miner-a 835 whoopsie 20 0 331610 15532 13660 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.07 whoopsie 1674 user 20 0 321672 15344 13440 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.02 gsd-datetime 1382 user 20 0 583368 15296 12536 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.22 gnome-session-b 1314 colord 20 0 257832 13772 8788 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.22 colord 1698 user 20 0 367052 13392 11628 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.02 gsd-printer 652 root 20 0 393988 12752 10204 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.18 udisksd 684 root 20 0 182624 11972 10412 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.12 cups-browsed 540 root 20 0 133576 11610 10264 S 0.0 0.6 0:02.97 vmtoolsd
top
$ top -n1 -o %MEM | grep rhythmbox 2385 user 20 0 1393488 99916 54312 S 6.2 5.0 1:06.10 rhythmbox
More options for top
command:
$ top -help procps-ng 3.3.15 Usage: top -hv | -bcEHiOSs1 -d secs -n max -u|U user -p pid(s) -o field -w [cols]
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