linux man page for slabtop

SLABTOP(1)							Linux User's Manual							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:

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

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

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

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

       --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.

       a:     sort by number of active objects

       b:     sort by objects per slab

       c:     sort by cache size

       l:     sort by number of slabs

       v      sort by number of active slabs

       n:     sort by name

       o:     sort by number of objects

       p:     sort by pages per slab

       s:     sort by object size

       u:     sort by cache utilization

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 it 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.  The procps package is maintained by Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sf.net>.

       Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>.

Linux								    13 Sep 2003 							SLABTOP(1)