Problem
Find your system information in Linux through the command line.
Solution
Most files that hold system information can be found in /proc, such as /proc/mdstat.
Easiest way to read them is to use either the less, or cat command to to read them:
less /proc/cpuinfo
or
cat /proc/cpuinfo
Using grep
You can append | grep parameter at the end of your command to only display lines that contain your parameter. The following command finds anything in /proc/meminfo with the line containing "Total"
cat /proc/meminfo | grep TotalOutput:
MemTotal: 16036920 kB
SwapTotal: 8388600 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
Keep in mind that Linux is case-sensitive, so if you cannot find the line you need, but believe it should be there, capitalize the first letter. "| grep total" will not work, but "| grep Total" will.
Important /proc files
cpuinfo - shows information about your CPU. Append "| grep model" to see your CPU's model number.
meminfo - shows information about your system memory (RAM). Append "| grep Total" to see your total system RAM.
version - shows current version and distribution of your OS
devices - shows a list of all attached devices (including system buses and available ports). Append "| grep devtype" to look up specific devices, such as hard drives. Wildcards are allowed. Example:
cat /proc/devices | grep tt*
partitions - shows hard drive partitions
mdstat - shows RAID information
modules - shows live modules
swap - shows swap file information
Other information files
Explore the /proc directory for other information you may require:
ls /proc