Retrieve RAM info on a Mac?

Question

I need to retrieve the total amount of RAM present in a system and the total RAM currently being used, so I can calculate a percentage. This is similar to: Retrieve system infor

Answer 1

Getting the machine's physical memory is simple with sysctl:

int mib [] = { CTL_HW, HW_MEMSIZE };
int64_t value = 0;
size_t length = sizeof(value);

if(-1 == sysctl(mib, 2, &value, &length, NULL, 0))
    // An error occurred

// Physical memory is now in value

VM stats are only slightly trickier:

mach_msg_type_number_t count = HOST_VM_INFO_COUNT;
vm_statistics_data_t vmstat;
if(KERN_SUCCESS != host_statistics(mach_host_self(), HOST_VM_INFO, (host_info_t)&vmstat, &count))
    // An error occurred

You can then use the data in vmstat to get the information you'd like:

double total = vmstat.wire_count + vmstat.active_count + vmstat.inactive_count + vmstat.free_count;
double wired = vmstat.wire_count / total;
double active = vmstat.active_count / total;
double inactive = vmstat.inactive_count / total;
double free = vmstat.free_count / total;

There is also a 64-bit version of the interface.