How to check heap usage of a running JVM from the command line?

You can use jstat, like :

 jstat -gc pid

Full docs here : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/share/jstat.html

All procedure at once. Based on @Till Schäfer answer.

In KB...

jstat -gc $(ps axf | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{print $1}') | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=(a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]+a[10]); printf("%.2f KB\n",sum)}'

In MB...

jstat -gc $(ps axf | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{print $1}') | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=(a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]+a[10])/1024; printf("%.2f MB\n",sum)}'

"Awk sum" reference:

 a[1] - S0C
 a[2] - S1C
 a[3] - S0U
 a[4] - S1U
 a[5] - EC
 a[6] - EU
 a[7] - OC
 a[8] - OU
 a[9] - PC
a[10] - PU
a[11] - YGC
a[12] - YGCT
a[13] - FGC
a[14] - FGCT
a[15] - GCT

Used for "Awk sum":

a[3] -- (S0U) Survivor space 0 utilization (KB).
a[4] -- (S1U) Survivor space 1 utilization (KB).
a[6] -- (EU) Eden space utilization (KB).
a[8] -- (OU) Old space utilization (KB).
a[10] - (PU) Permanent space utilization (KB).

[Ref.: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/share/jstat.html ]

Thanks!

NOTE: Works to OpenJDK!

FURTHER QUESTION: Wrong information?

If you check memory usage with the ps command, you will see that the java process consumes much more...

ps -eo size,pid,user,command --sort -size | egrep -i "*/bin/java *" | egrep -v grep | awk '{ hr=$1/1024 ; printf("%.2f MB ",hr) } { for ( x=4 ; x<=NF ; x++ ) { printf("%s ",$x) } print "" }' | cut -d "" -f2 | cut -d "-" -f1

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UPDATE (2021-02-16):

According to the reference below (and @Till Schäfer comment) "ps can show total reserved memory from OS" (adapted) and "jstat can show used space of heap and stack" (adapted). So, we see a difference between what is pointed out by the ps command and the jstat command.

According to our understanding, the most "realistic" information would be the ps output since we will have an effective response of how much of the system's memory is compromised. The command jstat serves for a more detailed analysis regarding the java performance in the consumption of reserved memory from OS.

[Ref.: http://www.openkb.info/2014/06/how-to-check-java-memory-usage.html ]

For Java 8 you can use the following command line to get the heap space utilization in kB:

jstat -gc <PID> | tail -n 1 | awk '{split($0,a," "); sum=a[3]+a[4]+a[6]+a[8]; print sum}'

The command basically sums up:

• S0U: Survivor space 0 utilization (kB).
• S1U: Survivor space 1 utilization (kB).
• EU: Eden space utilization (kB).
• OU: Old space utilization (kB).

You may also want to include the metaspace and the compressed class space utilization. In this case you have to add a[10] and a[12] to the awk sum.