slabtop

Start slabtop

$ sudo slabtop

$ sudo slabtop -s c

$ sudo slabtop -s o

$ sudo slabtop -s s

$ sudo slabtop -o

$ sudo slabtop -d 5

slabtop [-d delay] [-s sortcriteria] [-o]

slabtop displays detailed kernel slab cache information in real time. It shows a listing of the top caches sorted by one of the listed sort criteria, helping to monitor kernel memory allocation.

-d, --delay=N

Refresh the display every N seconds (default: 3)

Arrange output by specified sort criteria

Display output once then exit

Show version and exit

Show usage help and exit

a: Active objects (ACTIVE)
b: Objects per slab (OBJ/SLAB)
c: Cache size (CACHE SIZE)
l: Number of slabs (SLABS)
o: Number of objects (OBJS) - default
s: Object size (OBJ SIZE)
u: Cache utilization (USE)

Space: Refresh display immediately
q: Exit program
s: Change sort column

Requires root privileges to read kernel slab cache information. Sort criteria can be changed during runtime using the corresponding letter key.

slabtop is part of the procps-ng package. It provides insight into the kernel's slab allocator, which manages memory for frequently used kernel objects.

top(1), vmstat(8), free(1), ps(1)