From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 3 16:48:48 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B2541065672 for ; Thu, 3 Nov 2011 16:48:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from asbnvacz-mailrelay01.megapath.net (asbnvacz-mailrelay01.megapath.net [207.145.128.243]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 22AB98FC13 for ; Thu, 3 Nov 2011 16:48:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.52]) by asbnvacz-mailrelay01.megapath.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EEF2A700D5 for ; Thu, 3 Nov 2011 12:48:47 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 25837 invoked from network); 3 Nov 2011 16:48:46 -0000 Received: by simscan 1.4.0 ppid: 20660, pid: 9070, t: 0.1695s scanners: clamav: 0.88.2/m:52/d:13513 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 3 Nov 2011 16:48:46 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id F08BB2E0EA; Thu, 3 Nov 2011 12:48:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Lowell Gilbert To: Jon Schipp References: <4EB2965F.1030809@gmail.com> <44sjm542vo.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:48:45 -0400 In-Reply-To: (Jon Schipp's message of "Thu, 3 Nov 2011 12:22:20 -0400") Message-ID: <44k47h40eq.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Check Memory Usage, program like 'free' in Linux X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:48:48 -0000 Jon Schipp writes: > You wouldn't want to know when your machine has reached periods of high > memory utilization? No, I want to know when my machine would perform better if it had more memory. Keeping memory in use when it otherwise would be "free" means I get *better* performance. > Occurrence/frequency information seems pretty valuable. > More importantly, at specific times, noticing patterns, use during/after > business hours > > If you didn't want to use memory, it wouldn't be purchased. I don't think > keeping track of the utility of > your purchases is silly. That makes sense, but the amount of "free" memory does not tell you any of what you're saying you want to track. Please start by reading the FAQ question titled "Why does top show very little free memory even when I have very few programs running?". > That does the trick. I didn't think it was possible to grab data from > interactive programs without throwing in some "garbage". Technically, top(1) isn't an interactive program at all if you send its output to a pipe. It still could use terminal features, but it doesn't. This is described within the first 25 lines of its manual. In fact, I notice that the '-d 1' option (that I put in my suggestion) is redundant.