How to check heap usage of a running JVM from the command line?

Can I check heap usage of a running JVM from the commandline, I mean the actual usage rather than the max amount allocated with Xmx.

I need it to be commandline because I don't have access to a windowing environment, and I want script based on the value , the application is running in Jetty Application server

You can use jstat, like :

 jstat -gc pid

Full docs here : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/share/jstat.html

For Java 8 you can use the following command line to get the heap space utilization in kB:

jstat -gc <PID> | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]; print sum}'

The command basically sums up:

• S0U: Survivor space 0 utilization (kB).
• S1U: Survivor space 1 utilization (kB).
• EU: Eden space utilization (kB).
• OU: Old space utilization (kB).

You may also want to include the metaspace and the compressed class space utilization. In this case you have to add a[10] and a[12] to the awk sum.

All procedure at once. Based on @Till Schäfer answer.

In KB...

jstat -gc $(ps axf | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{print $1}') | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=(a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]+a[10]); printf("%.2f KB\n",sum)}'

In MB...

jstat -gc $(ps axf | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{print $1}') | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=(a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]+a[10])/1024; printf("%.2f MB\n",sum)}'

"Awk sum" reference:

 a[1] - S0C
 a[2] - S1C
 a[3] - S0U
 a[4] - S1U
 a[5] - EC
 a[6] - EU
 a[7] - OC
 a[8] - OU
 a[9] - PC
a[10] - PU
a[11] - YGC
a[12] - YGCT
a[13] - FGC
a[14] - FGCT
a[15] - GCT

Used for "Awk sum":

a[3] -- (S0U) Survivor space 0 utilization (KB).
a[4] -- (S1U) Survivor space 1 utilization (KB).
a[6] -- (EU) Eden space utilization (KB).
a[8] -- (OU) Old space utilization (KB).
a[10] - (PU) Permanent space utilization (KB).

[Ref.: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/share/jstat.html ]

Thanks!

NOTE: Works to OpenJDK!

FURTHER QUESTION: Wrong information?

If you check memory usage with the ps command, you will see that the java process consumes much more...

ps -eo size,pid,user,command --sort -size | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{ hr=$1/1024 ; printf("%.2f MB ",hr) } { for ( x=4 ; x<=NF ; x++ ) { printf("%s ",$x) } print "" }' | cut -d "" -f2 | cut -d "-" -f1

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UPDATE (2021-02-16):

According to the reference below (and @Till Schäfer comment) "ps can show total reserved memory from OS" (adapted) and "jstat can show used space of heap and stack" (adapted). So, we see a difference between what is pointed out by the ps command and the jstat command.

According to our understanding, the most "realistic" information would be the ps output since we will have an effective response of how much of the system's memory is compromised. The command jstat serves for a more detailed analysis regarding the java performance in the consumption of reserved memory from OS.

[Ref.: http://www.openkb.info/2014/06/how-to-check-java-memory-usage.html ]

If you start execution with gc logging turned on you get the info on file. Otherwise 'jmap -heap ' will give you what you want. See the [jmap doc page][1] for more.

Please note that jmap should not be used in a production environment unless absolutely needed as the tool halts the application to be able to determine actual heap usage. Usually this is not desired in a production environment.

[1]: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/share/jmap.html "here"

If you are using JDK 8 and above , use jcmd:

jcmd < pid > GC.heap_info