How to check memory in Linux

[Henry Yen]

The abbreviated answer is to use the "free" command, which gives a
simple and usable result.  But, most operating systems, including linux,
aren't limited by the amount of RAM in the system, but rather the
amount of swap space (a chunk of your hard drive dedicated to this purpose).

The output of the "free" command is intuitive once it's understood;
at first it looks confusing because linux will use up to all available
memory to cache disk file blocks, and it will simply begin to give
those up when a running program demands RAM for immediate use.

Is there a particular problem that you're trying to address that may
be tied to the available RAM (for various values of "available")?

On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 07:43:01AM +0200, Christian wrote:
> If I am running a 64 bit version of Linux, in this case Arch, I want to
> see how much RAM I have available to use. What command should I use in
> this case?