sysinfo(2) System Calls Manual sysinfo(2) NAME sysinfo - return system information LIBRARY Standard C library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS #include int sysinfo(struct sysinfo *info); DESCRIPTION sysinfo() returns certain statistics on memory and swap usage, as well as the load average. Until Linux 2.3.16, sysinfo() returned information in the following structure: struct sysinfo { long uptime; /* Seconds since boot */ unsigned long loads[3]; /* 1, 5, and 15 minute load averages */ unsigned long totalram; /* Total usable main memory size */ unsigned long freeram; /* Available memory size */ unsigned long sharedram; /* Amount of shared memory */ unsigned long bufferram; /* Memory used by buffers */ unsigned long totalswap; /* Total swap space size */ unsigned long freeswap; /* Swap space still available */ unsigned short procs; /* Number of current processes */ char _f[22]; /* Pads structure to 64 bytes */ }; In the above structure, the sizes of the memory and swap fields are given in bytes. Since Linux 2.3.23 (i386) and Linux 2.3.48 (all architectures) the structure is: struct sysinfo { long uptime; /* Seconds since boot */ unsigned long loads[3]; /* 1, 5, and 15 minute load averages */ unsigned long totalram; /* Total usable main memory size */ unsigned long freeram; /* Available memory size */ unsigned long sharedram; /* Amount of shared memory */ unsigned long bufferram; /* Memory used by buffers */ unsigned long totalswap; /* Total swap space size */ unsigned long freeswap; /* Swap space still available */ unsigned short procs; /* Number of current processes */ unsigned long totalhigh; /* Total high memory size */ unsigned long freehigh; /* Available high memory size */ unsigned int mem_unit; /* Memory unit size in bytes */ char _f[20-2*sizeof(long)-sizeof(int)]; /* Padding to 64 bytes */ }; In the above structure, sizes of the memory and swap fields are given as multiples of mem_unit bytes. RETURN VALUE On success, sysinfo() returns zero. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS EFAULT info is not a valid address. STANDARDS Linux. HISTORY Linux 0.98.pl6. NOTES All of the information provided by this system call is also available via /proc/meminfo and /proc/loadavg. SEE ALSO proc(5) Linux man-pages 6.7 2023-10-31 sysinfo(2)