Important information from the /proc file system is summarized by the command procinfo:
$ procinfo Linux 2.4.21-144-athlon (root@i386.suse.de) (gcc 3.3.1 ) #1 \ Fri Nov 28 01:14:40 UTC 2003 1CPU [nunez.suse.de] Memory: Total Used Free Shared Buffers Cached Mem: 514736 496088 18648 0 56128 224656 Swap: 1794736 104488 1690248 Bootup: Wed Feb 25 09:44:25 2004 Load average: 0.00 0.01 0.00 1/104 21285 user : 4:34:59.40 0.3% page in : 11320141 disk 1: 474842r 358260w nice : 0:07:12.64 0.0% page out: 14495036 disk 2: 649679r 989842w system: 1:15:00.55 0.1% swap in : 58942 disk 3: 6547r 610w idle : 61d 22:40:40.26 99.6% swap out: 149085 disk 4: 1169r 23w uptime: 62d 4:37:52.84 context :767431068 irq 0: 537347285 timer irq 10: 13970 usb-uhci, usb-uhci irq 1: 814562 keyboard irq 11: 146415669 ehci_hcd, usb-uhci, irq 2: 0 cascade [4] irq 12: 8008998 PS/2 Mouse irq 6: 2 irq 14: 2463408 ide0 irq 8: 2 rtc irq 15: 1355 ide1
To see all the information, use the parameter -a. The parameter -nN produces updates of the information every N seconds. In this case, terminate the program by pressing Q.
By default, the cumulative values are displayed. The parameter -d produces the differential values. procinfo -dn5 displays the values that have changed in the last five seconds:
Memory: Total Used Free Shared Buffers Cached Mem: 0 2 -2 0 0 0 Swap: 0 0 0 Bootup: Wed Feb 25 09:44:17 2004 Load average: 0.00 0.00 0.00 1/106 31902 user : 0:00:00.02 0.4% page in : 0 disk 1: 0r 0w nice : 0:00:00.00 0.0% page out: 0 disk 2: 0r 0w system: 0:00:00.00 0.0% swap in : 0 disk 3: 0r 0w idle : 0:00:04.99 99.6% swap out: 0 disk 4: 0r 0w uptime: 64d 3:59:12.62 context : 1087 irq 0: 501 timer irq 10: 0 usb-uhci, usb-uhci irq 1: 1 keyboard irq 11: 32 ehci_hcd, usb-uhci, irq 2: 0 cascade [4] irq 12: 132 PS/2 Mouse irq 6: 0 irq 14: 0 ide0 irq 8: 0 rtc irq 15: 0 ide1 irq 9: 0 acpi