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The "meminfo" Command

The meminfo command in ChromeOS provides detailed information about system memory usage through the Chrome OS Shell (crosh). This chapter explains how to use this system monitoring tool effectively.

Command Overview

The basic syntax for the command is:

meminfo

Understanding Memory Statistics

Basic Memory Metrics

When you run meminfo, it displays several key memory statistics: - Total system memory - Free memory - Available memory - Cached memory - Swap usage - Buffer information

Memory Categories

The command provides information about different memory types: - Physical RAM usage - Virtual memory allocation - Kernel memory usage - Cache utilization - Swap space statistics

Using the Command

Basic Usage

To view detailed memory statistics:

meminfo

Understanding Output Fields

Primary Statistics

  • MemTotal: Total usable RAM
  • MemFree: Unused memory
  • MemAvailable: Estimate of available memory
  • Buffers: Temporary storage for raw disk blocks
  • Cached: Size of page cache

Memory Management

  • SwapTotal: Total swap space
  • SwapFree: Unused swap space
  • Dirty: Memory waiting to be written to disk
  • Writeback: Memory actively being written to disk