Memory Load Applet

Table of Contents
The memory load applet

The memory load applet

The memload_applet is a small monitor applet which sits in your panel and tells you how much memory is being used.

Usage

You don't need to do anything to this applet. It will sit and run in your panel. Various options to alter its display are available.

Figure 1. MEM Load Applet

The applet shows four different uses of memory:

Free: Free memory is memory which is not being used by any program. The default colour is green.
Buffers: Buffers hold data which has not yet been written to the disk. They also hold data which has been recently read from the disk, keeping it around in case it is needed again. The default colour is grey.
Shared memory: Shared memory is memory which more than one program is using. This is a very common thing to do on UNIX systems. Many GNOME programs use a lot of shared memory, which cuts down on the total memory used. The default colour is yellow.
Other: Memory being used in other ways is shown in this category. The default colour is a greenish-yellow.

Right-Click Pop-Up Menu Items

In addition to the standard menu items, the right-click pop-up menu has the following items:

Default Properties...: This opens the multiload_applet dialogue box described below which allows you to alter the default properties of this and related monitor applets.
Properties...: This opens the multiload_applet dialogue box described below which affects only the memload_applet properties.
Run gtop...: This option will run the gtop which starts up the GNOME System Monitor. gtop gives a much more detailed look at your system and what's happening on it.

Like several of the monitor applets, memload_applet has two ways of setting preferences. You can make changes that affect any of this group of applets (cpuload_applet, memload_applet, swapload_applet, netload_applet and loadavg_applet) in one large dialogue box. This is useful if you run one or more of them. These are the settings used by default. They are reached from the Default Properties... menu item.

Figure 3. Greyed Out Properties Dialog

Or you can change just the properties for memload_applet. This is useful for when you only use memload_applet or want to try new combinations out. It is reached from the Properties menu item.

If you use the Properties... menu item and edit the preferences for just this applet, you must uncheck the Use default properties checkbox before you can alter any settings.

Figure 4. MEM Load Properties Dialog

The changes you can make to the properties are three:

Colours: You can alter the colours used for the different categories of memory the applet displays by clicking on the colour boxes. This invokes the GNOME colour wheel.
Speed: You can alter the speed that the graph proceeds with this. It is measured in milliseconds. The default value is 500.
Size: You can alter the size of the applet with this. It is measured in pixels. The default value is 40, and the range is from 1 pixel to whatever you like. In a vertical panel, this refers to the height. In a horizontal panel, it refers to the width.

Known Bugs and Limitations

Resizing and then altering the panel orientation can still cause intermittent problems, although they now fix themselves after a short period.

Authors

This applet was writen by Martin Baulig (<martin@home-of-linux.org>). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line. If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Telsa Gywnne (<telsa@linuxchix.org>) and Eric Baudais (<baudais@okstate.edu>). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to <docs@gnome.org>. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

     Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     59 Temple Place - Suite 330
     Boston, MA 02111-1307
     USA