Options¶

The -b switch displays the amount of memory in bytes; the -k switch (set by default) displays it in kilobytes; the -m switch displays it in megabytes; the -g switch displays it in gigabytes.

The -h switch displays all output fields automatically scaled to the shortest (three digit) representation including the unit. That makes the values human readable.

The -t switch displays a line containing the totals.

The -o switch disables the display of a "buffer adjusted" line. If the -o option is not specified, free subtracts buffer memory from the used memory and adds it to the free memory reported.

The -s switch activates continuous polling delay seconds apart. You may actually specify any floating point number for delay, usleep(3) is used for microsecond resolution delay times.

The -c switch used together with the -s switch interrupts the polling after count repetitions.

The -l switch shows detailed low and high memory statistics.

The -a switch shows the available memory (if supported by the running kernel and enabled with sysctl -w vm.meminfo_legacy_layout=0 ; shows zero when unsupported or disabled). The produced output is wider than 80 characters.

The -V switch displays version information.