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Full Discussion: Interpreting Linux's free command output
Top Forums UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers Interpreting Linux's free command output Post 303010964 by omega3 on Thursday 11th of January 2018 05:32:04 AM
Old 01-11-2018
Interpreting Linux's free command output
I have two questions on Linux's free command. Below, I have provided output from my home laptop (fedora 26 ) which has 16GB Physical RAM and a production server (RHEL 7.4) which has 24GB RAM.


Question1. What exactly does the buffer/cache column say in free command's output ? buffer/cache is only 1GB in my home laptop but it is 18GB in production server below.


Question2. To know the free RAM available to the system, Can I trust the 'available' column rather than the 'free' column ?
In my home laptop, the 'free' column shows 13GB and available shows 14GB
But, in my production server, when the free command shows just 2GB , the available command shows 9 GB


My Home Laptop with 16 GB RAM (Fedora 26)
Code:
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$ cat /etc/redhat-release
Fedora release 26 (Twenty Six)
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$ uname -a
Linux keithspc 4.12.8-300.fc26.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Aug 17 15:30:20 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$ free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15G        854M         13G        385M        1.0G         14G
Swap:          7.8G          0B        7.8G
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          15939         854       14073         385        1011       14362
Swap:          8034           0        8034
[sysadmin@keithspc ~]$

A production Server (VM) with 24GB RAM (RHEL 7.4)
Code:
[root@manhprod187 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.4 (Maipo)
[root@manhprod187 ~]#
[root@manhprod187 ~]# uname -a
Linux manhprod187 3.10.0-693.5.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Oct 13 10:46:25 EDT 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@manhprod187 ~]#
[root@manhprod187 ~]# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            23G        3.3G        2.0G         10G         18G        9.0G
Swap:          2.0G        1.4G        674M
[root@manhprod187 ~]#
[root@manhprod187 ~]# free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          23948        3471        2002       11006       18473        9194
Swap:          2063        1389         674
[root@manhprod187 ~]#

 

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LEARN ABOUT REDHAT

gusload

GUSLOAD(1)							   AWE32 manual 							GUSLOAD(1)

NAME

       gusload - load a GUS-format patch file into the AWE32 RAM

SYNOPSIS

       gusload [-Iixv] [-b bank] [-p preset] GUSpatch

DESCRIPTION

       This  manual  page  documents  briefly the gusload command.  This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution (but may be
       used by others), because the original program does not have a manual page.

       gusload is a program that will read a GUS-format patch file, and then upload it to the Linux AWE32 driver, to be used by other AWE32 utili-
       ties, e.g. drvmidi(1).

OPTIONS

       The program follows the usual UNIX command line syntax, but doesn't support long options (options starting with two dashes `-').  Here is a
       summary of the options is accepts:-

       -I     (Re-)Initializes the AWE32 driver.

       -i     Resets all samples.

       -x     Removes the last samples in the AWE32's RAM.

       -v     Verbose mode.

       -p [preset]
	      Sets the instrument number to [preset]. Defaults to values specified in the patch file.

       -b [bank]
	      Sets the "bank" that the instruments are loaded into. Defaults to bank 0.

       -c [chorus]
	      Sets the amount of chorus, ranging from 0 to 100.

       -r [reverb]
	      Sets the amount of reverberation, ranging from 0 to 100.

SEE ALSO

       sfxload(1)

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Tom Lees <tom@lpsg.demon.co.uk>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.

       The AWE32 driver and utilities were written by Takashi Iwai <iwai@dragon.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp>.

awesfx 0.3.3						   Mon Feb 17 10:35:23 GMT 1997 						GUSLOAD(1)
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