mem-usage-cli

Terminal memory usage monitor. Shows system RAM, swap, per-process breakdown, visual bar charts, and optional watch mode.

Install

npm install -g mem-usage-cli

Or run locally after cloning:

npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js

Usage

mem-usage-cli [options]

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | -p, --processes | Show per-process memory usage | | -t, --top <n> | Show top N memory consumers (default: 10) | | -w, --watch [interval] | Watch mode with refresh interval in seconds (default: 2) | | -j, --json | Output as JSON | | --history [limit] | Show memory usage history (last 20 by default) | | -V, --version | Print version | | -h, --help | Show help |

Examples

# Basic system memory overview
mem-usage-cli

# Show top 5 processes by memory
mem-usage-cli --processes --top 5

# Watch mode, refresh every 3 seconds
mem-usage-cli --watch 3

# Watch with process list
mem-usage-cli --watch --processes

# JSON output
mem-usage-cli --json

# JSON with process data
mem-usage-cli --json --processes --top 20

# Show memory history
mem-usage-cli --history

# Show last 50 history entries
mem-usage-cli --history 50

Output

Memory Overview

Displays total, used, free, cached, and buffers. Color-coded usage bars:

• Green: < 50% used
• Yellow: 50–80% used
• Red: > 80% used

Process Table

Lists processes sorted by RSS (resident set size) descending:

  PID      USER          RSS (MB)    VSZ (MB)  NAME
  1234   myuser          512.0 MB    2.1 GB    chrome

History

Tracked automatically on every run and stored in ~/.mem-usage-cli/history.jsonl. The --history flag renders a table with timestamps and bar charts.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• Linux (reads /proc/meminfo for cached/buffers/swap data)

License

MIT