SLABTOP(1)		      Linux User's Manual		    SLABTOP(1)



NAME
       slabtop - display kernel slab cache information in real time


SYNOPSIS
       slabtop [ options ]


DESCRIPTION
       slabtop(1)  displays  detailed  kernel  slab  cache information in real
       time.  It displays a listing of the top caches sorted  by  one  of  the
       listed sort criteria.  It also displays a statistics header filled with
       slab layer information.


OPTIONS
       Normal invocation of slabtop(1) does  not  require  any	options.   The
       behavior,  however,  can be fine-tuned by specifying one or more of the
       following flags:

       --delay=n, -d n
	      Refresh the display every n  seconds.   By  default,  slabtop(1)
	      refreshes the display every three seconds.  To exit the program,
	      hit q.

       --sort=S, -s S
	      Sort by S, where S is one of the sort criteria.

       --once, -o
	      Display the output once and then exit.

       --version, -V
	      Display version information and exit.

       --help Display usage information and exit.


SORT CRITERIA
       The following are valid sort criteria used to sort the individual  slab
       caches and thereby determine what are the "top" slab caches to display.
       The default sort criteria is to sort by the number of objects ("o").

       The sort criteria can also be  changed  while  slabtop  is  running  by
       pressing the associated character.

       a:     sort by number of active objects

       b:     sort by objects per slab

       c:     sort by cache size

       l:     sort by number of slabs

       v      sort by number of active slabs

       n:     sort by name

       o:     sort by number of objects

       p:     sort by pages per slab

       s:     sort by object size

       u:     sort by cache utilization


COMMANDS
       slabtop(1)  accepts  keyboard  commands	from the user during use.  The
       following are supported.	 In  the  case	of  letters,  both  cases  are
       accepted.

       Each of the valid sort characters are also accepted, to change the sort
       routine. See the section SORT CRITERIA.


       <SPACEBAR>
	      Refresh the screen.

       Q      Quit the program.


FILES
       /proc/slabinfo -- slab information


SEE ALSO
       free(1), ps(1), top(1), vmstat(8)


NOTES
       Currently, slabtop(1) requires a 2.4 or later kernel  (specifically,  a
       version	1.1  or later /proc/slabinfo).	Kernel 2.2 should be supported
       in the future.

       The slabtop statistic header is tracking how many bytes	of  slabs  are
       being used and it not a measure of physical memory. The 'Slab' field in
       the /proc/meminfo file is tracking information about used slab physical
       memory.


AUTHORS
       Written by Chris Rivera and Robert Love.

       slabtop(1)  was	inspired  by  Martin  Bligh's perl script, vmtop.  The
       procps package is maintained by Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sf.net>.

       Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>.



Linux				  13 Sep 2003			    SLABTOP(1)