procps 010114

vmstat.8

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+.\"  This page Copyright (C) 1994 Henry Ware <al172@yfn.ysu.edu>
+.\"  Distributed under the GPL, Copyleft 1994.
+.TH VMSTAT 8 "27 July 1994 " "Throatwobbler Ginkgo Labs" "Linux Administrator's Manual"
+.SH NAME
+vmstat \- Report virtual memory statistics
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.ft B
+.B vmstat
+.RB [ "\-n" ]
+.RI [ delay " [ " count ]]
+.br
+.BR vmstat [ "\-V" ]
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+\fBvmstat\fP reports information about processes, memory, paging,
+block IO, traps, and cpu activity.
+
+The first report produced gives averages since the last reboot.  Additional
+reports give information on a sampling period of length \fIdelay\fP.
+The process and memory reports are instantaneous in either case.
+
+.SS Options
+The \fB-n\fP switch  causes the header to be displayed only once rather than periodically.
+.PP
+.I delay
+is the delay between updates in seconds.  If no delay is specified,
+only one report is printed with the average values since boot.
+.PP
+.I count
+is the number of updates.  If no count is specified and delay is
+defined, \fIcount\fP defaults to infinity.
+.PP
+The \fB-V\fP switch results in displaying version information.
+.PP
+.SH FIELD DESCRIPTIONS
+.SS
+.B "Procs"
+.nf
+r: The number of processes waiting for run time.  
+b: The number of processes in uninterruptable sleep.
+w: The number of processes swapped out but otherwise runnable.  This 
+   field is calculated, but Linux never desperation swaps.
+.fi
+.PP
+.SS
+.B "Memory"
+.nf
+swpd: the amount of virtual memory used (kB).
+free: the amount of idle memory (kB).
+buff: the amount of memory used as buffers (kB).
+.fi
+.PP
+.SS
+.B "Swap"
+.nf
+si: Amount of memory swapped in from disk (kB/s).
+so: Amount of memory swapped to disk (kB/s).
+.fi
+.PP
+.SS
+.B "IO"
+.nf
+bi: Blocks sent to a block device (blocks/s).
+bo: Blocks received from a block device (blocks/s).
+.fi
+.PP
+.SS
+.B "System"
+.nf
+in: The number of interrupts per second, including the clock.
+cs: The number of context switches per second.
+.if
+.PP
+.SS
+.B "CPU "
+These are percentages of total CPU time.
+.nf
+us: user time
+sy: system time
+id: idle time 
+.nf
+.SH NOTES
+.B "vmstat "
+does not require special permissions.
+.PP
+These reports are intended to help identify system bottlenecks.  Linux
+.B "vmstat "
+does not count itself as a running process.
+.PP
+All linux blocks are currently 1k, except for CD-ROM blocks which are 2k.
+.PP
+.SH FILES
+.ta
+.nf
+/proc/meminfo
+/proc/stat
+/proc/*/stat
+.fi
+
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+ps(1), top(1), free(1)
+.PP
+.SH BUGS
+Does not tabulate the block io per device or count the number of system calls.
+.SH AUTHOR
+Written by Henry Ware <al172@yfn.ysu.edu>.