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 memory in the system, as well as the buffers and caches
       used by the kernel. The information is gathered by parsing /proc/meminfo. The displayed columns are:

       total  Total usable memory (MemTotal and SwapTotal in /proc/meminfo). This includes the physical and swap memory minus a few
              reserved bits and kernel binary code.

       used   Used or unavailable memory (calculated as total - available)

       free   Unused memory (MemFree and SwapFree in /proc/meminfo)

       shared Memory used (mostly) by tmpfs (Shmem in /proc/meminfo)

       buffers
              Memory used by kernel buffers (Buffers in /proc/meminfo)

       cache  Memory used by the page cache and slabs (Cached and SReclaimable in /proc/meminfo)

       buff/cache
              Sum of buffers and cache

       available
              Estimation  of how much memory is available for starting new applications, without swapping. Unlike the data provided
              by the cache or free fields, this field takes into account page cache and also that not all reclaimable memory  slabs
              will  be  reclaimed  due to items being in use (MemAvailable in /proc/meminfo, available on kernels 3.14, emulated on
              kernels 2.6.27+, otherwise the same as free)

OPTIONS
       -b, --bytes
              Display the amount of memory in bytes.

       -k, --kibi
              Display the amount of memory in kibibytes.  This is the default.

       -m, --mebi
              Display the amount of memory in mebibytes.

       -g, --gibi
              Display the amount of memory in gibibytes.

       --tebi Display the amount of memory in tebibytes.

       --pebi Display the amount of memory in pebibytes.

       --kilo Display the amount of memory in kilobytes. Implies --si.

       --mega Display the amount of memory in megabytes. Implies --si.

       --giga Display the amount of memory in gigabytes. Implies --si.

       --tera Display the amount of memory in terabytes. Implies --si.

       --peta Display the amount of memory in petabytes. Implies --si.

       -h, --human
              Show all output fields automatically scaled to shortest three digit unit and display the units of print out.  Follow‐
              ing units are used.

                B = bytes
                Ki = kibibyte
                Mi = mebibyte
                Gi = gibibyte
                Ti = tebibyte
                Pi = pebibyte

              If unit is missing, and you have exbibyte of RAM or swap, the number is in tebibytes and columns might not be aligned
              with header.

       -w, --wide
              Switch to the wide mode. The wide mode produces lines longer than 80 characters. In this mode buffers and  cache  are
              reported in two separate columns.

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

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

       -s, --seconds delay
              Continuously  display  the result delay  seconds apart.  You may actually specify any floating point number for delay
              using either . or , for decimal point.  usleep(3) is used for microsecond resolution delay times.

       --si   Use kilo, mega, giga etc (power of 1000) instead of kibi, mebi, gibi (power of 1024).

       -t, --total
              Display a line showing the column totals.

       -v, --committed
              Display a line showing the memory commit limit and amount of committed/uncommitted memory. The total column  on  this
              line will display the memory commit limit.   This line is relevant if memory overcommit is disabled.

       --help Print help.

       -V, --version
              Display version information.

FILES
       /proc/meminfo
              memory information

BUGS
       The value for the shared column is not available from kernels before 2.6.32 and is displayed as zero.

       Please send bug reports to
              ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩

SEE ALSO
       ps(1), slabtop(1), top(1), vmstat(8).

procps-ng                                                    2023-01-16                                                     FREE(1)