I'm not sure thats the correct way to check.
try typing cat /proc/<PID HERE>/status
VmSize: 5020 kB <-- think thats what you're looking for VmLck: 0 kB VmRSS: 1144 kB VmData: 436 kB VmStk: 36 kB VmExe: 616 kB VmLib: 3800 kB
The resident set size (RSS) is normally of most interest. The non-resident portion is on a disk so it's not using up your memory. Well, that's almost correct. If the RSS is less than the working set size over a short interval you don't have enough memory and your swap disk will be rattling like mad. For instance, I've got this process that claims to be 29500kB, but it only has a resident set size of 752kB, so I'm not all that worried about it. On the other hand, mozilla has an RSS of 142112kB which might explain a lot ... I think it was that huge page of error messages that I fed it.
jch
