SYSINFO(2)

NAME
sysinfo - returns information on overall system statistics

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/sysinfo.h>

int sysinfo(struct sysinfo *info);

DESCRIPTION
Until Linux 2.3.16, sysinfo() used to return 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 */
};

and the sizes were given in bytes. Since Linux 2.3.23 (i386), 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 */
};

and the sizes are given as multiples of mem_unit bytes. sysinfo() provides a simple way of getting overall system statistics. This is more portable than reading /dev/kmem.

RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EFAULT
    pointer to struct sysinfo is invalid

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

The Linux kernel has a sysinfo() system call since 0.98.pl6. Linux libc contains a sysinfo() routine since 5.3.5, and glibc has one since 1.90.

SEE ALSO
proc(5)

COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.41 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.