From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Feb 7 13:36:34 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C9A1137B401 for ; Fri, 7 Feb 2003 13:36:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.netcabo.pt (smtp.netcabo.pt [212.113.174.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E97D43FCB for ; Fri, 7 Feb 2003 13:36:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from andre.ramos@netcabo.pt) Received: from [81.84.50.179] ([81.84.50.179]) by smtp.netcabo.pt with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5329); Fri, 7 Feb 2003 21:35:36 +0000 Subject: Re: What are these different memory figures in TOP? From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Andr=E9?= Ramos To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Message-Id: <1044653453.6635.53.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.2.1 Date: 07 Feb 2003 21:30:56 +0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Feb 2003 21:35:37.0158 (UTC) FILETIME=[DA68F660:01C2CEF0] Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, 2003-02-07 at 21:27, Dan Delaney wrote: > Hello all. > > Is there a full explanation somewhere of what EXACTLY those six memory > usage figures mean that are displayed in 'top'? You know the ones: > Active, Inact, Wired, Cache, Buf, Free. The man page for top doesn't > explain them at all. What exactly is the difference between "active" > and "wired"? Between "cached" and "buffered"? How do you read those > values to determine whether you need more RAM? > > Thanks. > --Dan Active is the memory that is actually beeing used by the user's programs and those program's data. The buffer contains data recently loaded from the disk. Inactive and Cache are both used as cache memory for programs and program's data that are no longer running. Wired memory is the memory that's beeing used by the kernel. Free memory is exactly what it means. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message