SLABTOP(1)                                                         User Commands                                                        SLABTOP(1)

NAME

       slabtop - display kernel slab cache information in real time

SYNOPSIS

       slabtop [options]

DESCRIPTION

       slabtop  displays detailed kernel slab cache information in real time.  It displays a listing of the top caches sorted by one of the listed
       sort criteria.  It also displays a statistics header filled with slab layer information.

OPTIONS

       Normal invocation of slabtop does not require any options.  The behavior, however, can be fine-tuned by specifying one or more of the  fol-
       lowing flags:

       -d, --delay=N
              Refresh the display every n in seconds.  By default, slabtop refreshes the display every three seconds.  To exit the program, hit q.

       -s, --sort=S
              Sort by S, where S is one of the sort criteria.

       -o, --once
              Display the output once and then exit.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display usage information and exit.

SORT CRITERIA

       The  following are valid sort criteria used to sort the individual slab caches and thereby determine what are the "top" slab caches to dis-
       play.  The default sort criteria is to sort by the number of objects ("o").

       The sort criteria can also be changed while slabtop is running by pressing the associated character.

       character   description                header
       a           number of active objects   ACTIVE
       b           objects per slab           OBJ/SLAB
       c           cache size                 CACHE SIZE
       l           number of slabs            SLABS
       v           number of active slabs     N/A
       n           name                       NAME
       o           number of objects          OBJS
       p           pages per slab             N/A
       s           object size                OBJ SIZE
       u           cache utilization          USE

COMMANDS

       slabtop accepts keyboard commands from the user during use.  The following are supported.  In the case of letters, both cases are accepted.

       Each of the valid sort characters are also accepted, to change the sort routine. See the section SORT CRITERIA.

       <SPACEBAR>
              Refresh the screen.

       Q      Quit the program.

FILES

       /proc/slabinfo
              slab information

SEE ALSO

       free(1), ps(1), top(1), vmstat(8)

NOTES

       Currently, slabtop requires a 2.4 or later kernel (specifically, a version 1.1 or later /proc/slabinfo).  Kernel 2.2 should be supported in
       the future.

       The  slabtop statistic header is tracking how many bytes of slabs are being used and is not a measure of physical memory.  The 'Slab' field
       in the /proc/meminfo file is tracking information about used slab physical memory.

AUTHORS

       Written by Chris Rivera and Robert Love.

       slabtop was inspired by Martin Bligh's perl script, vmtop.

REPORTING BUGS

       Please send bug reports to <procps@freelists.org>

procps-ng                                                            June 2011                                                          SLABTOP(1)