22 replies to this topic

[Meega]

 

Please don't use the "free" command, it doesn't provide any useful information.

(removing the "free" command from the system just moved up one notch on my todo list)

sorry I did not understand what it means please can you explain more

do you mean system tools plugin

He means ,that when he has the time he will remove this command from the image.

Because it's probably not accurate. 

[pieterg]

Because it's probably not accurate.

Well, free accurately shows the 'free' and 'buffers' amounts.
However, it does not show the 'cached' amount, which is also important.

In order to find out how much memory is available for userspace, you need to add these three: free + buffers + cached.
Check the contents of /proc/meminfo (or the first line of the 'top' command output).

Most people only look at the 'free' amount, and forget to add 'buffers' and 'cached'.

edit: so instead of removing the 'free' command, it would be better to make the busybox free applet show 'cached' again. And perhaps add a '-/+ buffers/cache' line, like the full distro version does.

Edited by pieterg, 29 April 2013 - 16:22.

[MiLo]

...so instead of removing the 'free' command, it would be better to make the busybox free applet show 'cached' again. And perhaps add a '-/+ buffers/cache' line, like the full distro version does.

Agreed, but when I looked into it, I found that it would generate a lot of redundant code (because the "cached" information isn't available through the same syscall as the rest of the memory information) for a tool that only very few people would ever use. So my preference would be to remove the busybox version and have people who feel the need to type "free" on the console install util-linux-ng-free or whatever package happens to provide it.

I already changed the webinterface a while ago for the same reason, so it correctly reports free+buffers+cached instead of just the useless "free" amount. Since then the "I think I need more memory" posts have diminished significantly.