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openSUSE 11.1 Reference Guide
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11.7 System Information

11.7.1 Memory Usage: free

The utility free examines RAM usage. Details of both free and used memory and swap areas are shown:

tux@mercury:~> free
            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       2062844    2047444      15400          0     129580     921936
-/+ buffers/cache:     995928    1066916
Swap:      2104472          0    2104472

The options -b,-k,-m,-g show output in bytes, KB, MB, or GB, respectively. The parameter -d delay ensures that the display is refreshed every delay seconds. For example, free -d 1.5 produces an update every 1.5 seconds.

11.7.2 User Accessing Files: fuser

It can be useful to determine what processes or users are currently accessing certain files. Suppose, for example, you want to unmount a file system mounted at /mnt. umount returns "device is busy." The command fuser can then be used to determine what processes are accessing the device:

tux@mercury:~> fuser -v /mnt/*

                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/mnt/notes.txt       tux    26597 f....  less

Following termination of the less process, which was running on another terminal, the file system can successfully be unmounted.

11.7.3 Kernel Ring Buffer: dmesg

The Linux kernel keeps certain messages in a ring buffer. To view these messages, enter the command dmesg:

$ dmesg
[...]
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
subfs: unsuccessful attempt to mount media (256)
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, half-duplex
NET: Registered protocol family 17
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <[email protected]>
microcode: CPU0 updated from revision 0xe to 0x2e, date = 08112004
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver v1.14 unregistered
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c0326ea0(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
powernow: This module only works with AMD K7 CPUs
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on

Older events are logged in the files /var/log/messages and /var/log/warn.

11.7.4 List of Open Files: lsof

To view a list of all the files open for the process with process ID PID, use -p. For example, to view all the files used by the current shell, enter:

tux@mercury:~> lsof -p $$
COMMAND  PID   USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE    SIZE   NODE NAME
bash    5552 tux  cwd    DIR    3,3    1512 117619 /home/tux
bash    5552 tux  rtd    DIR    3,3     584      2 /
bash    5552 tux  txt    REG    3,3  498816  13047 /bin/bash
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    0,0              0 [heap] (stat: No such 
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3  217016 115687 /var/run/nscd/passwd
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3  208464  11867 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3  882134  11868 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3 1386997   8837 /lib/libc-2.3.6.so
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3   13836   8843 /lib/libdl-2.3.6.so
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3  290856  12204 /lib/libncurses.so.5.5
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3   26936  13004 /lib/libhistory.so.5.1
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3  190200  13006 /lib/libreadline.so.5.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      54  11842 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3    2375  11663 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3     290  11736 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      52  11831 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      34  11862 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      62  11839 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3     127  11664 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      56  11735 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3      23  11866 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3   21544   9109 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-m
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3     366   9720 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.
bash    5552 tux  mem    REG    3,3   97165   8828 /lib/ld-2.3.6.so
bash    5552 tux    0u   CHR  136,5              7 /dev/pts/5
bash    5552 tux    1u   CHR  136,5              7 /dev/pts/5
bash    5552 tux    2u   CHR  136,5              7 /dev/pts/5
bash    5552 tux  255u   CHR  136,5              7 /dev/pts/5

The special shell variable $$, whose value is the process ID of the shell, has been used.

The command lsof lists all the files currently open when used without any parameters. Because there are often thousands of open files, listing all of them is rarely useful. However, the list of all files can be combined with search functions to generate useful lists. For example, list all used character devices:

tux@mercury:~> lsof | grep CHR
bash      3838     tux    0u      CHR  136,0                 2 /dev/pts/0
bash      3838     tux    1u      CHR  136,0                 2 /dev/pts/0
bash      3838     tux    2u      CHR  136,0                 2 /dev/pts/0
bash      3838     tux  255u      CHR  136,0                 2 /dev/pts/0
bash      5552     tux    0u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
bash      5552     tux    1u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
bash      5552     tux    2u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
bash      5552     tux  255u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
X         5646       root  mem       CHR    1,1              1006 /dev/mem
lsof      5673     tux    0u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
lsof      5673     tux    2u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
grep      5674     tux    1u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5
grep      5674     tux    2u      CHR  136,5                 7 /dev/pts/5

11.7.5 Kernel and udev Event Sequence Viewer: udevadm monitor

udevadm monitor listens to the kernel uevents and events sent out by a udev rule and prints the device path (DEVPATH) of the event to the console. This is a sequence of events while connecting a USB memory stick:

UEVENT[1138806687] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2
UEVENT[1138806687] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2/4-2.2
UEVENT[1138806687] add@/class/scsi_host/host4
UEVENT[1138806687] add@/class/usb_device/usbdev4.10
UDEV  [1138806687] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2
UDEV  [1138806687] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2/4-2.2
UDEV  [1138806687] add@/class/scsi_host/host4
UDEV  [1138806687] add@/class/usb_device/usbdev4.10
UEVENT[1138806692] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2/4-2.2
UEVENT[1138806692] add@/block/sdb
UEVENT[1138806692] add@/class/scsi_generic/sg1
UEVENT[1138806692] add@/class/scsi_device/4:0:0:0
UDEV  [1138806693] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb4/4-2/4-2.2/4-2.2
UDEV  [1138806693] add@/class/scsi_generic/sg1
UDEV  [1138806693] add@/class/scsi_device/4:0:0:0
UDEV  [1138806693] add@/block/sdb
UEVENT[1138806694] add@/block/sdb/sdb1
UDEV  [1138806694] add@/block/sdb/sdb1
UEVENT[1138806694] mount@/block/sdb/sdb1
UEVENT[1138806697] umount@/block/sdb/sdb1
openSUSE 11.1 Reference Guide
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