How to Show Docker Memory Usage: Amount Total, Amount Used, and Percent Used

Published: Jul 14, 2021

I can view the total memory allocated to Docker with docker system info, as well as the amount and percent used for each container with docker stats.

But how do I look at total usage? With a little Bash-foo, of course.

Throw the following snippet into a Bash function or script and run when needed.

Snippet # 

mem_amount_total_with_unit=$(docker system info \
| grep 'Total Memory: ' \
| tr -d 'Total Memory: ')

unit=$(echo ${mem_amount_total_with_unit} \
| sed 's/[0-9\.]*//g')

mem_amount_total=$(echo ${mem_amount_total_with_unit} \
| sed 's/[^0-9\.]*//g')

mem_percent_used=$(docker stats --no-stream --format '{{.MemPerc}}' \
| tr -d '%' \
| paste -s -d '+' - \
| bc)

mem_percent_used=${mem_percent_used:-0}

mem_amount_used=$(echo "scale=2; ${mem_amount_total} * ${mem_percent_used} / 100" \
| bc)

echo "Memory Amount Total: ${mem_amount_total}${unit}"
echo "Memory Amount Used: ${mem_amount_used}${unit}"
echo "Memory Percent Used: ${mem_percent_used}%"

Sample Output #

I currently have 12GB of memory allocated to Docker, which translates to 11.7GiB reported. I assume it uses a portion for “other things”.

I also have 15 containers running, each with various memory appetites.

Memory Amount Total: 11.7GiB
Memory Amount Used: 8.88GiB
Memory Percent Used: 75.98%

References #