FreeBSD 13.2: Monitoring and Managing System Resources

Drafting:

Memory usage

In FreeBSD, the alternative to the Linux command free -m is the sysctl and top commands. The free -m command in Linux displays memory usage in megabytes. To obtain similar information in FreeBSD, you can use the following methods:

Using sysctl

The sysctl command can be used to display memory usage information. Run the following command to get the memory usage in bytes:

sysctl hw.physmem hw.pagesize vm.stats.vm.v_free_count vm.stats.vm.v_inactive_count vm.stats.vm.v_cache_count

To display memory usage in a more human-readable format (like megabytes), you can use the following script:

#!/bin/sh

physmem=`sysctl -n hw.physmem`
pagesize=`sysctl -n hw.pagesize`
free_count=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_free_count`
inactive_count=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_inactive_count`
cache_count=`sysctl -n vm.stats.vm.v_cache_count`

total_mem=$(( $physmem / 1024 / 1024 ))
free_mem=$(( ($free_count + $inactive_count + $cache_count) * $pagesize / 1024 / 1024 ))

echo "Total memory: ${total_mem}MB"
echo "Free memory: ${free_mem}MB"

Save the script to a file, make it executable with chmod +x script_name, and run it to display memory usage in megabytes.

Using top

The top command also provides memory usage information. Run the following command:

top

In the top output, you'll find memory usage information under the "Memory" section. It will display "Active", "Inact", "Laundry", "Wired", "Buf", "Free", and other memory-related values.

top will also display your swap space

CPU

Finding CPU info

On FreeBSD, you can use the sysctl command to obtain information about your CPU. Here's how you can find your CPU details:

Open a terminal window on your FreeBSD system.

• Type the following command and press Enter:

sysctl hw.model

This command will display the model name of your CPU.

To obtain more detailed information about your CPU, type the following command and press Enter:

sysctl hw.machine_arch

This command will display the architecture of your CPU (e.g., amd64, i386, etc.).

You can also use the dmesg command to obtain information about your CPU. Type the following command and press Enter:

dmesg | grep CPU:

• This command will display information about your CPU, including the model name, clock speed, and number of cores.

In addition to these commands, you can also use third-party system information tools like lshw and hwinfo to obtain detailed information about your CPU and other hardware components on your FreeBSD system.