1PCP-FREE(1) General Commands Manual PCP-FREE(1)
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6 pcp-free - report on free and used memory in the system
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9 pcp [pcp options] free [-bkmgroltVw?] [-c count] [-s interval]
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12 pcp-free gives a summary display of the total amount of free and used
13 physical memory and swap in the system, as well as the caches used by
14 the kernel.
15 When invoked via the pcp(1) command, the -h/--host, -a/--archive,
17 -O/--origin, -s/--samples, -t/--interval, -Z/--timezone and several
18 other pcp options become indirectly available, see PCPIntro(1) for
19 their descriptions.
20 The displayed columns are:
22 total Total installed memory (MemTotal and SwapTotal in /proc/meminfo)
24 used Used memory (calculated as total - free - buffers - cache)
26 free Unused memory (MemFree and SwapFree in /proc/meminfo)
28 shared Memory used (mostly) by tmpfs (Shmem in /proc/meminfo)
30 buffers
32 Memory used by kernel buffers (Buffers in /proc/meminfo)
33 cache Memory used by the page cache and slabs (Cached and SReclaimable
35 in /proc/meminfo)
36 buff/cache
38 Sum of buffers and cache
39 available
41 Estimation of how much memory is available for starting new
42 applications, without swapping. Unlike the data provided by the
43 cache or free fields, this field takes into account page cache
44 and also that not all reclaimable memory slabs will be reclaimed
45 due to items being in use (MemAvailable in /proc/meminfo).
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48 The available command line options are:
49 -b, --bytes
51 Display the amount of memory in bytes.
52 -c count, --samples=count
54 Terminate the display after count iterations. See also -s.
55 -g, --gigabytes
57 Display the amount of memory in gigabytes.
58 -k, --kilobytes
60 Display the amount of memory in kilobytes. This is the default.
61 -l Display detailed low and high memory statistics.
63 -m, --megabytes
65 Display the amount of memory in megabytes.
66 -o Disable the display of a "buffer adjusted" line. If the -o option
68 is not specified, free subtracts buffer memory from the used mem‐
69 ory and adds it to the free memory reported.
70 -r, --terabytes
72 Display the amount of memory in terabytes.
73 -s delay, --interval=delay
75 Activate continuous polling delay seconds apart. You may specify
76 any floating point number for delay, or indeed any valid pmPar‐
77 seInterval(3) specification, which includes microsecond resolution
78 delay times. This can be used in conjunction with the -c option.
79 -t, --total
81 Display a line containing the totals.
82 -V, --version
84 Display version number and exit.
85 -w, --wide
87 Switch to the wide mode. The wide mode produces lines longer than
88 80 characters. In this mode buffers and cache are reported in two
89 separate columns.
90 -?, --help
92 Display usage message and exit.
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95 pcp-free is inspired by the free(1) command and aims to be command line
96 and output compatible with it.
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99 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
100 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
101 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
102 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
103 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
104 For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).
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108 PCPIntro(1), pcp(1), free(1), pmParseInterval(3) and environ(7).
109Performance Co-Pilot PCP PCP-FREE(1)