Knowledge Base:All available memory is being used

Synopsis

When calling the free command to see the available memory, users notice that all memory is in use and therefore not available for applications anymore:

user $free -m

             total       used       free     shared    buff/cache   available
Mem:          7974        5721        61          0          2192        2154
Swap:         8205         20       8184

A more human readable output is available with the -h option:

user $free -mh

             total       used       free     shared    buff/cache   available
Mem:         7.8Gi      5.6Gi      6.1Mi        0Ki         2.1Gi       2.1Gi
Swap:        8.0Gi       20Mi      8.0Gi

Environment

This article is applicable to all Linux systems.

Analysis

The output of the free command is correct, but often misinterpreted.

• The free column in the Mem: row tells the user how much memory is not used for anything, including buffers or cache (which can be removed at any time when memory is needed).
• The buff/cache column in the Mem: row show how much memory is currently used by buffers and cache (mostly used for file system caching), which is memory that can be immediately reclaimed for applications (and as such should be seen as free for applications)

Resolution

To know how much memory is available for applications (if they need it), one should read the available column on the Mem: line, as that includes free memory + memory used by buffers and cache.

In the above example, more than 2 GiB of memory is available for applications.

External resources

• Linux ate my ram! — An entire site dedicated to the misinterpretation of available RAM in Linux.