If you need to determine the amount of memory in a system that is running
the Ubuntu Linux
operating
system (OS), you can open a
Terminal
window from the App Center and then use the free command.
If you use the command without any options, you will see the amount
of memory displayed in
bytes. To display the value in a more human-friendly format, you
can add the argument -h or --human, e.g.,
to see the value in
gigabytes.
alice@firefly:~$ free -h total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 14Gi 2.4Gi 10Gi 426Mi 2.3Gi 12Gi Swap: 4.0Gi 0B 4.0Gi alice@firefly:~$
Other options for the command are shown below:
jim@Serenity:~$ free --help Usage: free [options] Options: -b, --bytes show output in bytes --kilo show output in kilobytes --mega show output in megabytes --giga show output in gigabytes --tera show output in terabytes --peta show output in petabytes -k, --kibi show output in kibibytes -m, --mebi show output in mebibytes -g, --gibi show output in gibibytes --tebi show output in tebibytes --pebi show output in pebibytes -h, --human show human-readable output --si use powers of 1000 not 1024 -l, --lohi show detailed low and high memory statistics -L, --line show output on a single line -t, --total show total for RAM + swap -v, --committed show committed memory and commit limit -s N, --seconds N repeat printing every N seconds -c N, --count N repeat printing N times, then exit -w, --wide wide output --help display this help and exit -V, --version output version information and exit For more details see free(1). jim@Serenity:~$
Note:The free command in Linux shows the total amount of installed physical memory in the total column, but this value is less than the actual hardware random-access memory (RAM) installed because the Linux kernel reserves a portion of memory for itself and for hardware devices (like video card buffers) at boot time. The total shown is the usable RAM available to the OS, not the absolute hardware total.
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