SLABTOP(1) User Commands SLABTOP(1)
NAME
slabtop - display kernel slab cache information in real time
SYNOPSIS
slabtop [options]
DESCRIPTION
slabtop displays detailed kernel slab cache information in real time.
It displays a listing of the top caches sorted by one of the listed
sort criteria. It also displays a statistics header filled with slab
layer information.
OPTIONS
Normal invocation of slabtop does not require any options. The behav-
ior, however, can be fine-tuned by specifying one or more of the fol-
lowing flags:
-d, --delay=N
Refresh the display every n in seconds. By default, slabtop re-
freshes the display every three seconds. To exit the program,
hit q.
-s, --sort=S
Sort by S, where S is one of the sort criteria.
-o, --once
Display the output once and then exit.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display usage information and exit.
SORT CRITERIA
The following are valid sort criteria used to sort the individual slab
caches and thereby determine what are the "top" slab caches to display.
The default sort criteria is to sort by the number of objects ("o").
The sort criteria can also be changed while slabtop is running by
pressing the associated character.
character description header
a number of active objects ACTIVE
b objects per slab OBJ/SLAB
c cache size CACHE SIZE
l number of slabs SLABS
v number of active slabs N/A
n name NAME
o number of objects OBJS
p pages per slab N/A
s object size OBJ SIZE
u cache utilization USE
COMMANDS
slabtop accepts keyboard commands from the user during use. The fol-
lowing are supported. In the case of letters, both cases are accepted.
Each of the valid sort characters are also accepted, to change the sort
routine. See the section SORT CRITERIA.
<SPACEBAR>
Refresh the screen.
Q Quit the program.
FILES
/proc/slabinfo
slab information
SEE ALSO
free(1), ps(1), top(1), vmstat(8)
NOTES
Currently, slabtop requires a 2.4 or later kernel (specifically, a ver-
sion 1.1 or later /proc/slabinfo). Kernel 2.2 should be supported in
the future.
The slabtop statistic header is tracking how many bytes of slabs are
being used and is not a measure of physical memory. The 'Slab' field
in the /proc/meminfo file is tracking information about used slab phys-
ical memory.
AUTHORS
Written by Chris Rivera and Robert Love.
slabtop was inspired by Martin Bligh's perl script, vmtop.
REPORTING BUGS
Please send bug reports to <procps@freelists.org>
procps-ng June 2011 SLABTOP(1)