Mastering Embedded Linux Programming - Second Edition

How much memory does the kernel use?

Unfortunately, there isn't a complete answer to the question 'how much memory does the kernel use, but what follows is as close as we can get.

Firstly, you can see the memory taken up by the kernel code and data in the kernel log shown previously, or you can use the size command, as follows:

$ arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-size vmlinuxtext      data     bss       dec       hex       filename9013448   796868   8428144   18238460  1164bfc   vmlinux

Usually, the amount of memory taken by the kernel for the static code and data segments shown here is small when compared to the total amount of memory. If that is not the case, you need to look through the kernel configuration and remove the components that you don't need. There is an ongoing effort ...