Home / ubuntu / Questions / 138668
Accepted
Nick Bailuc
Asked: 2012-05-18 15:15:29 +0800 CST

Is there a program that tells ram usage? [duplicate]

  • 772

Possible Duplicate:
How can I monitor the memory usage?

I have Ubuntu 12.4 LTS and I need a program that will be able to monitor my ram usage. Any suggestions?

monitor ram 12.04

6 Answers

  1. I think htop is the best solution, this way you will be able to see what program is using the most amount of RAM.

    • sudo apt-get install htop
    • 25
  2. Best Answer

    Gnome System Monitor

    It already has CPU, RAM, Network monitoring tool.

    Just look for the application in your application dash or run

    gnome-system-monitor
    • 23

  3. You can use the console, just type "free"

    • 12

  4. Yes, many.

    If you're looking for an applet, try Indicator-SysMonitor.

    enter image description here

    You can download a .deb file for it from here: https://launchpad.net/indicator-sysmonitor

    Other programs are listed here at omgubuntu: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/11/5-system-monitoring-tools-for-ubuntu/

    • 8

  5. Try commands: free, top or cat /proc/meminfo

    With top, you can press shift+m to sort processes by (resident) memory usage.

    • 6

  6. The command free on the command-line is a good way.

    However, it can be difficult to understand how exactly Linux uses memory, because by default the memory reported as "in use" includes buffers and cache. The thing about cache is that it automatically expands, as you use the disk, to occupy all remaining physical memory not used for programs (save for a few megabytes). However, when programs need it it's still "available" to them, so it is misleading to think of it as "in use".

    I use free -m which also shows a count of used and free physical memory where buffers and cache are not counted as "used", which is more realistic.

    • 1