smemstat is a command-line tool for examining Linux process memory usage with shared memory divided proportionally, making it more informative than simple resident memory reports.
It shows swap, USS, PSS, and RSS figures for running processes, and can present memory activity either as a single snapshot or as sampled output that highlights changes over time.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Reports swap, USS, PSS, and RSS memory usage for processes.
- Offers top-style views for memory changes and the biggest memory consumers.
- Can monitor selected processes by PID or process name.
- Supports JSON output for saving results for later analysis.
- Provides short, long, basename-stripped, and comm-based command display modes.
- Can report all user space processes when run with root privileges.
Website: github.com/ColinIanKing/smemstat
Support:
Developer: Colin Ian King
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

Smemstat is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Process Memory Tools | |
|---|---|
| ps_mem | Accurately reports memory usage of programs |
| pscircle | Visualizes Linux processes in a form of radial tree |
| psrecord | Record the CPU and memory activity of a process |
| process-mem | Display memory used by processes |
| process-map | Visualize the virtual memory of a process |
| mstat | Measure memory usage of a program over time |
| alram | Helps when available memory is below threshold, with optional task killer |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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