vmstat
 | This article relies on a single source. (March 2026) |
| vmstat | |
|---|---|
| Developer | AT&T Bell Laboratories |
| Release | February 1985 |
| Operating system | Unix and Unix-like |
| Type | Command |
vmstat (virtual memory statistics) is a computer system monitoring tool that collects and displays summary information about operating system memory, processes, interrupts, paging and block I/O. Users of vmstat can specify a sampling interval which permits observing system activity in near-real time.[1]
The vmstat tool is available on most Unix and Unix-like operating systems, such as FreeBSD, Linux or Solaris.
Syntax
[edit]The syntax and output of vmstat often differs slightly between different operating systems.
# vmstat 2 6
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
0 0 2536 21496 185684 1353000 0 0 0 14 1 2 0 0 100 0
0 0 2536 21496 185684 1353000 0 0 0 28 1030 145 0 0 100 0
0 0 2536 21496 185684 1353000 0 0 0 0 1026 132 0 0 100 0
0 0 2536 21520 185684 1353000 0 0 0 0 1033 186 1 0 99 0
0 0 2536 21520 185684 1353000 0 0 0 0 1024 141 0 0 100 0
0 0 2536 21584 185684 1353000 0 0 0 0 1025 131 0 0 100 0
In the above example the tool reports every two seconds for six iterations.
We can get the customized or required outputs by using various options with the vmstat command.
# vmstat –s- This option is used to get memory statistics.
# vmstat –d- This option is used to get disk statistics.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Chatterjee, Pooja; Mukherjee, Rohit; Das, Ishita; Roy, Tanmay (2021). Real-time performance benchmarking using vmstat/iostat (Report). Retrieved 2026-03-22.
External links
[edit]- – FreeBSD System Manager's Manual
- – Solaris 11.4 System Administration Commands Reference Manual
- : Report virtual memory statistics – Linux Administration and Privileged Commands Manual
- Softpanorama vmstat page
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