FREE(1)                          User Commands                         FREE(1)



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 mem-
       ory in the system, as well as the buffers  used  by  the  kernel.   The
       shared  memory column represents either the MemShared value (2.4 series
       kernels) or the Shmem value (2.6 series kernels and later)  taken  from
       the  /proc/meminfo  file.  The  value is zero if none of the entries is
       exported by the kernel.

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.

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

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

       -o, --old
              Display the output in old format, the only difference being this
              option will disable the display of the "buffer adjusted" line.

       -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>



procps-ng                       September 2011                         FREE(1)
