The free command is a well-known utility in Linux environments, providing a quick overview of the system's memory usage, including total, used, and free memory, along with swap space information. However, macOS lacks this tool natively. The free tool for macOS aims to bridge this gap, offering macOS users a similar functionality to monitor their system's memory usage directly from the command line.
The free tool for macOS is available via Homebrew. This is the easiest way to use it. Add this tap to your Homebrew:
brew tap MohamedElashri/free-macOnce the tap has been added, you can install free-mac by running:
brew install free-mac- GCC compiler or equivalent
- macOS system
The project includes a Makefile for straightforward compilation. There are two targets:
makefor compiling the tool for production use.make testfor compiling with AddressSanitizer for development and debugging.
makemake testAfter compilation, execute the binary from the terminal to see memory statistics:
./freeTo remove the compiled objects and executable:
make cleanRunning the free command outputs the memory and swap usage in a formatted table, similar to the following:
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 16.00 GB 12.77 GB 26.95 MB 0.00 B 3.20 GB 4.00 GB
Swap: 2.00 GB 359.94 MB 1.65 GB
With total flag (-t):
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 16.00 GB 12.77 GB 26.95 MB 0.00 B 3.20 GB 4.00 GB
Swap: 2.00 GB 359.94 MB 1.65 GB
Total: 18.00 GB 13.13 GB 1.68 GB
free - display amount of free and used memory in the system
free [OPTIONS]The free command provides information about the total amount of physical and swap memory in the system, as well as the free and used memory.
-b, --bytes: Display the amount of memory in bytes.-k, --kibi: Display the amount of memory in kibibytes. This is the default.-m, --mebi: Display the amount of memory in mebibytes.-g, --gibi: Display the amount of memory in gibibytes.--tebi: Display the amount of memory in tebibytes.--pebi: Display the amount of memory in pebibytes.--kilo: Display the amount of memory in kilobytes. Implies --si.--mega: Display the amount of memory in megabytes. Implies --si.--giga: Display the amount of memory in gigabytes. Implies --si.--tera: Display the amount of memory in terabytes. Implies --si.--peta: Display the amount of memory in petabytes. Implies --si.-h, --human: Show all output fields automatically scaled to shortest three digit unit and display the units.-w, --wide: Switch to the wide mode. The wide mode produces lines longer than 80 characters.-c, --count count: Display the result count times. Requires the -s option.-l, --lohi: Show detailed low and high memory statistics.-L, --line: Show output on a single line, often used with the -s option to show memory statistics repeatedly.-s, --seconds delay: Continuously display the result delay seconds apart.--si: Use kilo, mega, giga etc (power of 1000) instead of kibi, mebi, gibi (power of 1024).-t, --total: Display a line showing the column totals.-v, --committed: Display a line showing the memory commit limit and amount of committed memory.-d, --debug: Enable debug output.--help: Print help.-V, --version: Display version information.
This project is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.
Contributions to the free-mac are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or file issues through GitHub to suggest improvements or report bugs.