Memory usage¶

The following command can be used to show your current memory usage:

  free -m

This will return output similar to the following:

  # free -m
  total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
  Mem:          7872       2238       5634          0        183       1702
  -/+ buffers/cache:        351       7520
  Swap:            0          0          0

At first glance, it may seem that the server only has 5.3G available, but the value we’re interested in is the one just below it, in the -/+ buffers/cache section. This takes Linux’s native disk caching into account, which can otherwise makes it look as though most of your RAM is being used up.

For further explanation, see http://www.linuxatemyram.com/