Installation guide

Chapter 20. Gathering System Information 173
20.2. Memory Usage
The free command displays the total amount of physical memory and swap space for the
system as well as the amount of memory that are used, free, shared, in kernel buffers, and
cached.
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 256812 240668 16144 105176 50520 81848
-/+ buffers/cache: 108300 148512
Swap: 265032 780 264252
The command free -m shows the same information in megabytes, which are easier to read.
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 250 235 15 102 49 79
-/+ buffers/cache: 105 145
Swap: 258 0 258
If you would like to use a graphical interface with free, you can use the GNOME System
Monitor. To start it on the GNOME desktop, go to the Main Menu Button (on the Panel) =>
Programs => System => System Monitor or type gtop at a shell prompt from within any X
Window System desktop. Then choose the Memory Usage tab.
Figure 20-2. GNOME System Monitor