Show System Statistics from /proc Filesystem Using procinfo

The procinfo command is a powerful Linux utility that reads system statistics from the /proc filesystem and displays them in a user-friendly format. It provides quick access to essential system metrics like CPU usage, memory consumption, and process information, making it an invaluable tool for system administrators and users monitoring system performance.

The /proc filesystem is a virtual filesystem that provides real-time information about running processes and system resources. The procinfo command parses this data and presents it in an organized, readable format.

Installation

Install procinfo using your distribution's package manager

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get install procinfo

CentOS/RHEL

sudo yum install procinfo-ng

Fedora

sudo dnf install procinfo-ng

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S procinfo-ng

Gentoo

sudo emerge procinfo-ng

Basic Usage

Run procinfo without options to display a comprehensive system overview

procinfo

This produces output similar to

Linux mycomputer 4.15.0-96-generic #97-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 1 03:25:46 UTC 2020 x86_64

Memory:          Total    Used     Free   Shared  Buffers  Cached
                 Mem:   327948   247776   80172    21236    66772   96880
                 Swap:       0        0       0

Bootup: Fri Jun 12 16:16:03 2020   Load average: 0.18 0.15 0.10 2/146 3413
User:   1 user    Uptime: 0 days 01h 18m 55s
Processes: 146 running, 395 total, 1 zombie

CPU Usage:  0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 100.0% idle, 0.0% IO-wait

Memory Usage Display

Use the -m option to focus specifically on memory statistics

procinfo -m

The memory section displays

Memory:  Total   Used    Free   Shared  Buffers Cached
          Mem:   7948   7191     757      416     3077   2399
          Swap:  8191   1287    6904

CPU Usage Display

Display CPU utilization statistics with the -c option

procinfo -c

CPU Usage:  user  nice   sys   idle   irq
           2.4%   0.0%  1.0%  95.1%  1.4%

The CPU metrics show

• User Time spent executing user-space processes

• Nice Time spent on low-priority user processes

• System Time spent executing kernel code

• Idle Time when CPU was not active

• IRQ Time spent handling hardware interrupts

Process Information

View detailed information about a specific process using the -p option followed by the process ID

procinfo -p 1234

Process Information:
 PID     PPID    CPU%    MEM%   VSZ    RSS    TTY  STAT  START  TIME    COMMAND
 1234    1       2.4     0.2    12856  8464   ?     S     17:50  0:05    firefox

This output includes process ID, parent process ID, CPU and memory usage percentages, virtual memory size (VSZ), resident set size (RSS), terminal, process state, start time, and the command name.

Key Features

• Real-time data Reads current statistics from /proc filesystem

• Multiple views Supports focused displays for memory, CPU, or process information

• System overview Provides comprehensive system status in a single command

• Lightweight Minimal resource consumption while monitoring

Conclusion

The procinfo command is an essential tool for Linux system monitoring that leverages the /proc filesystem to provide comprehensive system statistics. It offers administrators and users a quick, efficient way to monitor memory usage, CPU utilization, and process information in a readable format, making system performance analysis straightforward and accessible.