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 used by the
       kernel.	The shared memory column represents either the MemShared value (2.4 series  kernels)  or  the  Shmem  value  (2.6
       series  kernels	and later) taken from the /proc/meminfo file. The value is zero if none of the entries is exported by the
       kernel.

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

       -k, --kilo
	      Display the amount of memory in kilobytes.  This is the default.

       -m, --mega
	      Display the amount of memory in megabytes.

       -g, --giga
	      Display the amount of memory in gigabytes.

       --tera Display the amount of memory in terabytes.

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

		B = bytes
		K = kilos
		M = megas
		G = gigas
		T = teras

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

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

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

       -o, --old
	      Display the output in old format, the only difference being this option will disable the	display  of  the  "buffer
	      adjusted" line.

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

       --si   Use power of 1000 not 1024.

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

       --help Print help.

       -V, --version
	      Display version information.

FILES
       /proc/meminfo
	      memory information

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

AUTHORS
       Written by Brian Edmonds.

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



procps-ng						  September 2011						  FREE(1)