Question

I am trying to calculate appropriate sizing data on a linux system for a product and am looking to determine memory usage. The way I am approaching it so far is by running:

cat /proc/<pid>/status

When looking at the output, but I am not sure which figures are relevant. For example:

VmPeak: 19662464 kB
VmSize: 18344416 kB
VmLck:         0 kB
VmHWM:   5942980 kB
VmRSS:   4734832 kB
VmData:  2108608 kB
VmStk:       120 kB
VmExe:      9256 kB
VmLib:    304448 kB
VmPTE:     10316 kB

I would think i would use VmSize (Virtual Memory right?) or VmRSS (Private Memory right?) or some combination to determine this, but I am not sure. Any pointers on correctly calculating the memory usage of a process in Linux?

Answer 1

There are some commands that can help you determine memory usage for a given process:

try pmap or pmap -x

you could also use the old and good top command

vmstat would be useful too.