vmstat

vmstat [options] [interval [count] ]

System administration command. Print report on virtual memory statistics, includ
ing information on processes, memory, paging block I/O, traps, system and CPU us
age. vmstat initially reports average values since the last system reboot. If gi
ven a sampling period interval in seconds, it prints additional statistics for e
ach interval. If specified, vmstat exits when it has completed count reports. Ot
herwise, it continues until it receives a Ctrl-C, printing a new header line eac
h time it fills the screen.
Options
-a
Display active and inactive memory.
-d
Display disk statistics.
-f
Display the number of forks since the system was booted.
-m
Display the names and sizes of various kernel objects stored in a cache known as
the slab layer. Also see the slabtop command.
-n
Don't print new header lines when the screen is full.
-p partition
Display detailed statistics for the specified partition.
-s
Display various even counters and memory statistics.
-S units
Switch the output units. Possible values are k, K, m or M.
-V
Print version number, then exit.
VM mode fields
procs
r
Processes waiting for runtime.
b
Uninterruptible sleeping processes.
memory
swpd
Virtual memory used, in kilobytes.
free
Idle memory, in kilobytes.
buff
Memory used as buffers, in kilobytes.
cache
Cache memory, in kilobytes.
inactive
Inactive memory, in kilobytes, displayed with -a.
active
Active memory, in kilobytes; displayed with -a.
swap
si
Memory swapped in from disk each second, in kilobytes.
so
Memory swapped out to disk each second, in kilobytes.
io
bi
Blocks sent to block devices each second.
bo
Blocks received from block devices each second.
system
in
Interrupts per second, including clock interrupts.
cs
Context switches per second.
cpu
us
Percentage of CPU time consumed by user processes.
sy
Percentage of CPU time consumed by system processes.
id
Percentage of CPU time spent idle.
wa
Percentage of CPU time spent waiting for I/O.
Disk mode fields
Reads and Writes
total
Total reads or writes completed successfully.
merged
Reads or writes grouped into one I/O.
sectors
Sectors read or written successfully.
ms
Milliseconds spent reading or writing.
IO
cur
I/O in progress
s
Seconds spent doing I/O.
Disk partition mode fields
reads
Total reads issued to this partition.
read sectors
Total sectors read for this partition.
writes
Total writes issued to this partition.
requested writes
Total write requests for this partition.
Slab mode fields
cache
Cache name.
num
Number of currently active objects.
total
Total number of available objects.
size
Size of each object.
pages
Number of pages with at least one active object.
totpages
Total number of allocated pages.
pslab
Number of pages per slab.