Using meminfo information

[Karl Pearson]

On Mon, July 23, 2007 3:15 pm, Rick Stevens wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-07-23 at 13:51 -0700, Waldher, Travis R wrote:
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Rick Stevens [mailto:rstevens at internap.com]
>> > Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:10 PM
>> > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
>> > Subject: Re: Using meminfo information
>> >
>> > On Mon, 2007-07-23 at 12:54 -0700, Waldher, Travis R wrote:
>> > > I am trying to determine how much memory really is in use on the
>> > > system for executing commands.  Would going by "Active" be the most
>> > > accurate?
>> > >
>> > > There is 4.8GB of RAM available for processes beyond the
>> > OS, of that
>> > > 3.2GB are in use with 1.9GB free?
>> > >
>> > > MemTotal:      6009532 kB
>> > > MemFree:        298016 kB
>> > > Buffers:        190068 kB
>> > > Cached:        4842408 kB
>> > > SwapCached:          0 kB
>> > > Active:        3256152 kB
>> > > Inactive:      1919492 kB
>> > > HighTotal:           0 kB
>> > > HighFree:            0 kB
>> > > LowTotal:      6009532 kB
>> > > LowFree:        298016 kB
>> > > SwapTotal:     8388600 kB
>> > > SwapFree:      8388596 kB
>> > > Dirty:              48 kB
>> > > Writeback:           0 kB
>> > > Mapped:         126552 kB
>> > > Slab:           510696 kB
>> > > CommitLimit:  11393364 kB
>> > > Committed_AS:   198068 kB
>> > > PageTables:       3052 kB
>> > > VmallocTotal: 2147483647 kB
>> > > VmallocUsed:      6144 kB
>> > > VmallocChunk: 2147477355 kB
>> >
>> > Yes, active is really the number that's involved in programs
>> > (code, BSS and heap).
>> >
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > - Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer             rstevens at internap.com -
>> > - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
>> > -                                                                    -
>> > -                  Heisenberg _may_ have slept here                  -
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Is it correct to say that the sar command cannot report how much active
>> and inactive cache there is?  If it can, I'm not finding it - I can only
>> find how much is being used for the cache.  Or in sar land, is that the
>> same thing as active in the meminfo file?
>
> The "kbcached" column of "sar -r" reports the amount of cache used.
> As far as I know, it can't split active and inactive out.
>
> The active section of /proc/meminfo is what's used for code, BSS and
> heap of programs on the run queue (in other words, memory dedicated
> to runnable programs).

I give. If meminfo can tell us active memory, why can't sar. It would be
pretty easy to write a script to give yourself the information you need. If
that information is needed by another program/CGI, then use printf $VAR in
it...

Okay, more than was asked.

Karl

>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer             rstevens at internap.com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> -      Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.       -
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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-- 
Karl L. Pearson
karlp at ourldsfamily.com
http://consulting.ourldsfamily.com
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