1SLABTOP(1)                       User Commands                      SLABTOP(1)
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NAME

6       slabtop - display kernel slab cache information in real time
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SYNOPSIS

9       slabtop [options]
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DESCRIPTION

12       slabtop  displays  detailed kernel slab cache information in real time.
13       It displays a listing of the top caches sorted by  one  of  the  listed
14       sort  criteria.   It also displays a statistics header filled with slab
15       layer information.
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OPTIONS

18       Normal invocation of slabtop does not require any options.  The  behav‐
19       ior,  however,  can be fine-tuned by specifying one or more of the fol‐
20       lowing flags:
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22       -d, --delay=N
23              Refresh the display every n in seconds.  By default, slabtop re‐
24              freshes  the  display every three seconds.  To exit the program,
25              hit q.
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27       -s, --sort=S
28              Sort by S, where S is one of the sort criteria.
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30       -o, --once
31              Display the output once and then exit.
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33       -V, --version
34              Display version information and exit.
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36       -h, --help
37              Display usage information and exit.
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SORT CRITERIA

40       The following are valid sort criteria used to sort the individual  slab
41       caches and thereby determine what are the "top" slab caches to display.
42       The default sort criteria is to sort by the number of objects ("o").
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44       The sort criteria can also be  changed  while  slabtop  is  running  by
45       pressing the associated character.
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47       character   description                header
48       a           number of active objects   ACTIVE
49       b           objects per slab           OBJ/SLAB
50       c           cache size                 CACHE SIZE
51       l           number of slabs            SLABS
52       v           number of active slabs     N/A
53       n           name                       NAME
54       o           number of objects          OBJS
55       p           pages per slab             N/A
56       s           object size                OBJ SIZE
57       u           cache utilization          USE
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COMMANDS

60       slabtop  accepts  keyboard commands from the user during use.  The fol‐
61       lowing are supported.  In the case of letters, both cases are accepted.
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63       Each of the valid sort characters are also accepted, to change the sort
64       routine. See the section SORT CRITERIA.
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66       <SPACEBAR>
67              Refresh the screen.
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69       Q      Quit the program.
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FILES

72       /proc/slabinfo
73              slab information
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SEE ALSO

76       free(1), ps(1), top(1), vmstat(8)
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NOTES

79       Currently, slabtop requires a 2.4 or later kernel (specifically, a ver‐
80       sion 1.1 or later /proc/slabinfo).  Kernel 2.2 should be  supported  in
81       the future.
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83       The  slabtop  statistic  header is tracking how many bytes of slabs are
84       being used and is not a measure of physical memory.  The  'Slab'  field
85       in the /proc/meminfo file is tracking information about used slab phys‐
86       ical memory.
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AUTHORS

89       Written by Chris Rivera and Robert Love.
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91       slabtop was inspired by Martin Bligh's perl script, vmtop.
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REPORTING BUGS

94       Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩
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98procps-ng                          June 2011                        SLABTOP(1)