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32 .\" @(#)vmstat.8 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40 .Nd report virtual memory statistics
46 .Op Fl M Ar core Op Fl N Ar system
59 utility reports certain kernel statistics kept about process, virtual memory,
60 disk, trap and cpu activity.
64 option is not specified, information is obtained from
65 the currently running kernel via the
68 Otherwise, information is read from the specified core file,
69 using the name list from the specified kernel image (or from
72 The options are as follows:
73 .Bl -tag -width indent
77 include statistics about interrupts that have never been generated.
82 The first display is for the time since a reboot and each subsequent
83 report is for the time period since the last display.
88 is specified, the default is infinity, otherwise the default is one.
95 system calls since system startup, and the number of pages of virtual memory
98 Changes memory columns into more easily human readable form. Default if
99 standard output is a terminal device.
101 Changes memory columns into straight numbers. Default if standard output
102 is not a terminal device (such as a script).
104 Report on the number of interrupts taken by each device since system
107 Extract values associated with the name list from the specified
113 extract the name list from the specified
115 instead of the default,
116 which is the kernel image the system has booted from.
118 Report on the usage of kernel dynamic memory allocated using
122 Change the maximum number of disks to display from the default of 2.
124 Report per-cpu system/user/idle cpu statistics.
126 Specify which types of devices to display.
127 There are three different
128 categories of devices:
130 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
132 .Bl -tag -width 9n -compact
134 Direct Access devices
136 Sequential Access devices
142 Write Once Read Multiple devices
148 Optical Memory devices
150 Medium Changer devices
152 Communication devices
154 Storage Array devices
156 Enclosure Services devices
162 .Bl -tag -width 9n -compact
164 Integrated Drive Electronics devices
166 Small Computer System Interface devices
168 Any other device interface
172 .Bl -tag -width 9n -compact
178 The user must specify at least one device type, and may specify at most
179 one device type from each category.
180 Multiple device types in a single
181 device type statement must be separated by commas.
185 arguments may be specified on the command line.
188 arguments are ORed together to form a matching expression against which
189 all devices in the system are compared.
190 Any device that fully matches
193 argument will be included in the
195 output, up to two devices, or the maximum number of devices specified
198 Display the contents of the
200 structure, giving the total number of several kinds of paging related
201 events which have occurred since system startup.
203 .\" Report on the number of page in and page reclaims since system startup,
204 .\" and the amount of time required by each.
208 seconds between each display.
211 interval is specified, the default is 1 second.
213 Report on memory used by the kernel zone allocator,
220 displays the following information:
222 .Bl -tag -width indent
224 Information about the numbers of processes in various states.
226 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
230 blocked for resources (i/o, paging, etc.)
232 runnable or short sleeper (< 20 secs) but swapped
235 Information about the usage of virtual and real memory.
236 Virtual pages (reported in units of 1024 bytes) are considered active if
237 they belong to processes which are running or have run in the last 20
240 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
244 size of the free list
247 Information about page faults and paging activity.
248 These are averaged each five seconds, and given in units per second.
250 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
252 total number of page faults
254 page reclaims (simulating reference bits)
256 .\" pages attached (found in free list)
262 pages freed per second
264 .\" anticipated short term memory shortfall
266 pages scanned by clock algorithm, per-second
269 Disk operations per second (this field is system dependent).
270 Typically paging will be split across the available drives.
271 The header of the field is the first two characters of the disk name and
273 If more than two disk drives are configured in the system,
275 displays only the first two drives, unless the user specifies the
277 argument to increase the number of drives displayed.
279 cause the display to exceed 80 columns, however.
282 to display specific drives, their names may be supplied on the command line.
286 defaults to show disks first, and then various other random devices in the
287 system to add up to two devices, if there are that many devices in the
289 If devices are specified on the command line, or if a device type
290 matching pattern is specified (see above),
292 will only display the given devices or the devices matching the pattern,
293 and will not randomly select other devices in the system.
295 Trap/interrupt rate averages per second over last 5 seconds.
297 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
299 device interrupts per interval (including clock interrupts)
301 system calls per interval
303 cpu context switch rate (switches/interval)
306 Breakdown of percentage usage of CPU time.
308 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
310 user time for normal and low priority processes
318 .Bl -tag -width /boot/kernel/kernel -compact
319 .It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
320 default kernel namelist
327 will print what the system is doing every five
328 seconds; this is a good choice of printing interval since this is how often
329 some of the statistics are sampled in the system.
330 Others vary every second and running the output for a while will make it
331 apparent which are recomputed every second.
334 .Dl vmstat -p da -p cd -w 1
335 will tell vmstat to select the first two direct access or CDROM devices
336 and display statistics on those devices, as well as other systems
337 statistics every second.
352 The sections starting with ``Interpreting system activity'' in
353 .%T "Installing and Operating 4.3BSD" .
359 options are only available with the default output.