diff --git a/free.1 b/free.1
index 1e8e7ef7..21cce28a 100644
--- a/free.1
+++ b/free.1
@@ -11,11 +11,30 @@ free \- Display amount of free and used memory in the system
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B free
 displays the total amount of free and used physical and swap memory in the
-system, as well as the buffers used by the kernel.
-The shared memory column represents either the MemShared value (2.4 series
-kernels) or the Shmem value (2.6 series kernels and later) taken from the
-/proc/meminfo file. The value is zero if none of the entries is exported
-by the kernel.
+system, as well as the buffers and caches used by the kernel. The
+information is gathered by parsing /proc/meminfo. The displayed
+columns are:
+.TP
+\fBtotal\fR
+Total installed memory (MemTotal and SwapTotal in /proc/meminfo)
+.TP
+\fBused\fR
+Used memory (calculated as total - free)
+.TP
+\fBfree\fR
+Unused memory (MemFree and SwapFree in /proc/meminfo)
+.TP
+\fBshared\fR
+Memory used (mostly) by tmpfs (Shmem in /proc/meminfo, available on
+kernels 2.6.32, displayed as zero if not available)
+.TP
+\fBbuffers\fR
+Memory used by kernel buffers (Buffers in /proc/meminfo)
+.TP
+\fBcached\fR
+Memory used by the page cache  (calculated as Cached - Shmem in
+/proc/meminfo - the Cached value is actually the sum of page cache and
+tmpfs memory)
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
 \fB\-b\fR, \fB\-\-bytes\fR
diff --git a/proc/sysinfo.c b/proc/sysinfo.c
index 1680cc4a..e07ca866 100644
--- a/proc/sysinfo.c
+++ b/proc/sysinfo.c
@@ -531,7 +531,6 @@ static int compare_mem_table_structs(const void *a, const void *b){
  *
  * MemTotal:        61768 kB    old
  * MemFree:          1436 kB    old
- * MemShared:           0 kB    old (now always zero; not calculated)
  * Buffers:          1312 kB    old
  * Cached:          20932 kB    old
  * Active:          12464 kB    new
@@ -560,7 +559,7 @@ static int compare_mem_table_structs(const void *a, const void *b){
  * Hugepagesize:     4096 kB    2.5.??+
  */
 
-/* obsolete since 2.6.x, but reused for shmem in 2.6.32+ */
+/* Shmem in 2.6.32+ */
 unsigned long kb_main_shared;
 /* old but still kicking -- the important stuff */
 unsigned long kb_main_buffers;
@@ -631,14 +630,13 @@ void meminfo(void){
   {"LowTotal",     &kb_low_total},
   {"Mapped",       &kb_mapped},       // kB version of vmstat nr_mapped
   {"MemFree",      &kb_main_free},    // important
-  {"MemShared",    &kb_main_shared},  // obsolete since kernel 2.6! (sharing the variable with Shmem replacement)
   {"MemTotal",     &kb_main_total},   // important
   {"NFS_Unstable", &kb_nfs_unstable},
   {"PageTables",   &kb_pagetables},   // kB version of vmstat nr_page_table_pages
   {"ReverseMaps",  &nr_reversemaps},  // same as vmstat nr_page_table_pages
   {"SReclaimable", &kb_swap_reclaimable}, // "swap reclaimable" (dentry and inode structures)
   {"SUnreclaim",   &kb_swap_unreclaimable},
-  {"Shmem",        &kb_main_shared},  // kernel 2.6 and later (sharing the output variable with obsolete MemShared)
+  {"Shmem",        &kb_main_shared},  // kernel 2.6.32 and later
   {"Slab",         &kb_slab},         // kB version of vmstat nr_slab
   {"SwapCached",   &kb_swap_cached},
   {"SwapFree",     &kb_swap_free},    // important
@@ -684,6 +682,8 @@ nextline:
   }
   kb_swap_used = kb_swap_total - kb_swap_free;
   kb_main_used = kb_main_total - kb_main_free;
+  /* "Cached" includes "Shmem" - we want only the page cache here */
+  kb_main_cached -= kb_main_shared;
 }
 
 /*****************************************************************/
diff --git a/proc/sysinfo.h b/proc/sysinfo.h
index 1eb34727..22916319 100644
--- a/proc/sysinfo.h
+++ b/proc/sysinfo.h
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ extern int        uptime (double *uptime_secs, double *idle_secs);
 extern unsigned long getbtime(void);
 extern void       loadavg(double *av1, double *av5, double *av15);
 
-
-/* obsolete */
+/* Shmem in 2.6.32+ */
 extern unsigned long kb_main_shared;
 /* old but still kicking -- the important stuff */
 extern unsigned long kb_main_buffers;
diff --git a/vmstat.8 b/vmstat.8
index 420d9f39..2782a427 100644
--- a/vmstat.8
+++ b/vmstat.8
@@ -102,7 +102,8 @@ b: The number of processes in uninterruptible sleep.
 swpd: the amount of virtual memory used.
 free: the amount of idle memory.
 buff: the amount of memory used as buffers.
-cache: the amount of memory used as cache.
+cache: the amount of memory used as cache (excluding tmpfs memory for
+kernels 2.6.32+)
 inact: the amount of inactive memory.  (\-a option)
 active: the amount of active memory.  (\-a option)
 .fi