SYSINFO(2)

NAME
sysinfo - return system information

LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/sysinfo.h>

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.

VERSIONS
sysinfo() first appeared in Linux 0.98.pl6.

STANDARDS
This function is Linux-specific, and should not be used in programs intended to be portable.

NOTES
All of the information provided by this system call is also available via /proc/meminfo and /proc/loadavg.

SEE ALSO
proc(5)