Monitor .NET Process Memory in Linux/WSL

1. Log memory usage to the console

Read the process's private memory size and print it in megabytes:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Trigger your memory-consuming logic here (e.g., OCR, PDF generation, etc.)
// Log memory usage
Process currentProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
long memorySize = currentProcess.PrivateMemorySize64; // In bytes
Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memorySize / (1024 * 1024)} MB");
}
}

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Trigger your memory-consuming logic here (e.g., OCR, PDF generation, etc.)
// Log memory usage
Process currentProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
long memorySize = currentProcess.PrivateMemorySize64; // In bytes
Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memorySize / (1024 * 1024)} MB");
}
}

Imports System
Imports System.Diagnostics

Class Program
    Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
        ' Trigger your memory-consuming logic here (e.g., OCR, PDF generation, etc.)
        ' Log memory usage
        Dim currentProcess As Process = Process.GetCurrentProcess()
        Dim memorySize As Long = currentProcess.PrivateMemorySize64 ' In bytes
        Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memorySize / (1024 * 1024)} MB")
    End Sub
End Class

PrivateMemorySize64 returns the amount of memory, in bytes, that the process has allocated exclusively and does not share with other processes. It's a solid indicator of how heavy your application is running.

2. Track memory continuously

while (true)
{
var memory = Process.GetCurrentProcess().PrivateMemorySize64;
Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memory / (1024 * 1024)} MB");
Thread.Sleep(5000); // Log every 5 seconds
}

while (true)
{
var memory = Process.GetCurrentProcess().PrivateMemorySize64;
Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memory / (1024 * 1024)} MB");
Thread.Sleep(5000); // Log every 5 seconds
}

Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Threading

While True
    Dim memory = Process.GetCurrentProcess().PrivateMemorySize64
    Console.WriteLine($"Memory Usage: {memory / (1024 * 1024)} MB")
    Thread.Sleep(5000) ' Log every 5 seconds
End While

Memory Usage: 214 MB

Option: Monitor externally with Linux tools

To watch a process from outside the app, use one of the standard utilities. <PID> is the Process ID, the unique number the operating system assigns to each running process.

top or htop: watch a single process live.

top -p <PID>

top -p <PID>

ps: print a one-shot snapshot of memory fields.

ps -o pid,vsz,rss,comm -p <PID>

ps -o pid,vsz,rss,comm -p <PID>

Here VSZ is the virtual memory size in KB and RSS is the resident set size, the physical memory in use.

smem: install it for a more detailed per-process breakdown.

sudo apt install smem
smem -p <PID>

sudo apt install smem
smem -p <PID>