In Linux, how to tell how much memory processes are using?

user_253976 0
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I think I may have a memory leak in my LAMP application (memory gets used up, swap starts getting used, etc.). If I could see how much memory the various processes are using, it might help me resolve my problem. Is there a way for me to see this information in *nix?

memory-leaks memory-management unix linux
13 Answers

I don't know why the answer seem so complicated... It seems pretty simple to do this with ps:

mem()
{                                                                                                      
    ps -eo rss,pid,euser,args:100 --sort %mem | grep -v grep | grep -i $@ | awk '{printf $1/1024 "MB"; $1=""; print }'
}

Example usage:

$ mem mysql
0.511719MB 781 root /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe
0.511719MB 1124 root logger -t mysqld -p daemon.error
2.53516MB 1123 mysql /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr/lib/mysql/plugin --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock --port=3306
user_17814350

Use

  • ps u `pidof $TASKS_LIST` or ps u -C $TASK
  • ps xu --sort %mem
  • ps h -o pmem -C $TASK

Example:

ps-of()
{
 ps u `pidof "$@"`
}

$ ps-of firefox
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
const    18464  5.9  9.4 1190224 372496 ?      Sl   11:28   0:33 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox

$ alias ps-mem="ps xu --sort %mem | sed -e :a -e '1p;\$q;N;6,\$D;ba'"
$ ps-mem 
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
const     3656  0.0  0.4 565728 18648 ?        Sl   Nov21   0:56 /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubuntuone-client/ubuntuone-syncdaemon
const    11361  0.3  0.5 1054156 20372 ?       Sl   Nov25  43:50 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/ubuntuone-control-panel-qt
const     3402  0.0  0.5 1415848 23328 ?       Sl   Nov21   1:16 nautilus -n
const     3577  2.3  2.0 1534020 79844 ?       Sl   Nov21 410:02 konsole
const    18464  6.6 12.7 1317832 501580 ?      Sl   11:28   1:34 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox

$ ps h -o pmem -C firefox
12.7
user_7942140
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