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 ap‐
42 plications, 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, --lohi
63 Display detailed low and high memory statistics.
64 -m, --megabytes
66 Display the amount of memory in megabytes.
67 -o Disable the display of a "buffer adjusted" line. If the -o option
69 is not specified, free subtracts buffer memory from the used mem‐
70 ory and adds it to the free memory reported.
71 -r, --terabytes
73 Display the amount of memory in terabytes.
74 -s delay, --interval=delay
76 Activate continuous polling delay seconds apart. You may specify
77 any floating point number for delay, or indeed any valid pmPar‐
78 seInterval(3) specification, which includes microsecond resolution
79 delay times. This can be used in conjunction with the -c option.
80 -t, --total
82 Display a line containing the totals.
83 -V, --version
85 Display version number and exit.
86 -w, --wide
88 Switch to the wide mode. The wide mode produces lines longer than
89 80 characters. In this mode buffers and cache are reported in two
90 separate columns.
91 -?, --help
93 Display usage message and exit.
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96 pcp-free is inspired by the free(1) command and aims to be command line
97 and output compatible with it.
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100 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
101 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
102 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
103 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
104 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
105 For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).
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109 PCPIntro(1), pcp(1), free(1), pmParseInterval(3) and environ(7).
110Performance Co-Pilot PCP PCP-FREE(1)