#top vmstat¶

vmstat [-a] [-n] [-S unit] [delay [ count]]
vmstat [-s] [-n] [-S unit]
vmstat [-m] [-n] [delay [ count]]
vmstat [-d] [-n] [delay [ count]]
vmstat [-p disk partition] [-n] [delay [ count]]
vmstat [-f]
vmstat [-V]

The -a switch displays active/inactive memory, given a 2.5.41 kernel or better.

The -f switch displays the number of forks since boot. This includes the fork, vfork, and clone system calls, and is equivalent to the total number of tasks created. Each process is represented by one or more tasks, depending on thread usage. This display does not repeat.

The -m displays slabinfo.

The -n switch causes the header to be displayed only once rather than periodically.

The -s switch displays a table of various event counters and memory statistics. This display does not repeat.

delay is the delay between updates in seconds. If no delay is specified, only one report is printed with the average values since boot.

count is the number of updates. If no count is specified and delay is defined, count defaults to infinity.

The -d reports disk statistics (2.5.70 or above required)

The -p followed by some partition name for detailed statistics (2.5.70 or above required)

The -S followed by k or K or m or M switches outputs between 1000, 1024, 1000000, or 1048576 bytes

The -V switch results in displaying version information.