[Bug 126329] Re: "free" shows too much memory in use

[Phillip Susi]

** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #565518
   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=565518

** Also affects: procps (Debian) via
   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=565518
   Importance: Unknown
       Status: Unknown

** Summary changed:

- "free" shows too much memory in use
+ "free" doesn't account for slab cache

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to procps in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/126329

Title:
  "free" doesn't account for slab cache

Status in “procps” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in “procps” package in Debian:
  Unknown

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: procps

  Using procps 1:3.2.7-3ubuntu2 from Feisty, do "free -m":

               total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
  Mem:          2026       1967         59          0        629        665
  -/+ buffers/cache:        672       1354
  Swap:            0          0          0

  Historically I've used the "-/+ buffers/cache" line as a way to
  determine how much memory my system is "really" using.  "Really" in
  this case means "memory in use that won't just be freed up when I want
  it for something".

  Since the "-/+ buffers/cache" line doesn't include the Slab cache (the
  "Slab:" line in /proc/meminfo), and the Slab cache can grow quite big,
  "free" cannot be used to determine the amount of free memory in the
  machine :-(.

  I would like "free" to count the Slab: memory as free, at least on the
  "-/+ buffers/cache" line.

  Or that somebody could tell me an alternative way of finding out the
  amount of free memory in my machine without having to manually add
  things up from /proc/meminfo.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/procps/+bug/126329/+subscriptions