Demystifying the FREE command in LINUX
The free command is used in LINUX to give stats about MEMORY/SWAP usage. Others may have blogged about this simple command before but most important is HOW to understand & interpret the results. Beginners might be confused the first time they run the command. A little theory on MEMORY USAGE in LINUX : “In Linux, unused memory is wasted memory” That’s why memory is used for caching whenever possible. I got the following nice illustration from Linux Performance and Tuning Guidelines by IBM (RedPaper) The amount of FREE MEMORY is calculated by the formula: FREE = free + buffers + cached Another website dedicated completely to the FREE command is : http://www.linuxatemyram.com by Vidar Holen