jstat(1)

📦 version 11.0.32.1.u1, in arch rolling

okay so you found jstat(1), from the Monitoring Tools part of the manual, and she is lowkey iconic: Java Virtual Machine (JVM) stats with main character energy 💅✨ Grab a snack, bestie.

🌸 NAME 🌸

jstat — Monitors Java Virtual Machine (JVM) statistics. This command is experimental and unsupported. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

jstat [ generalOption | outputOptions vmid [ interval[s|ms] [ count ] ]

generalOption — A single general command-line option -help or -options. See General Options.
outputOptions — One or more output options that consist of a single statOption, plus any of the -t, -h, and -J options. See Output Options.
vmid — Virtual machine identifier, which is a string that indicates the target JVM. The general syntax is the following:

[protocol:][//]lvmid[@hostname[:port]/servername]

The syntax of the vmid string corresponds to the syntax of a URI. The vmid string can vary from a simple integer that represents a local JVM to a more complex construction that specifies a communications protocol, port number, and other implementation-specific values. See Virtual Machine Identifier.

interval [s|ms] — Sampling interval in the specified units, seconds (s) or milliseconds (ms). Default units are milliseconds. Must be a positive integer. When specified, the jstat command produces its output at each interval.
count — Number of samples to display. The default value is infinity, which causes the jstat command to display statistics until the target JVM terminates or the jstat command is terminated. This value must be a positive integer.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The jstat command displays performance statistics for an instrumented Java HotSpot VM. The target JVM is identified by its virtual machine identifier, or vmid option. 💖

💜 VIRTUAL MACHINE IDENTIFIER 💜

The syntax of the vmid string corresponds to the syntax of a URI:

[protocol:][//]lvmid[@hostname[:port]/servername]

protocol — The communications protocol. If the protocol value is omitted and a host name is not specified, then the default protocol is a platform-specific optimized local protocol. If the protocol value is omitted and a host name is specified, then the default protocol is rmi.
lvmid — The local virtual machine identifier for the target JVM. The lvmid is a platform-specific value that uniquely identifies a JVM on a system. The lvmid is the only required component of a virtual machine identifier. The lvmid is typically, but not necessarily, the operating system's process identifier for the target JVM process. You can use the jps command to determine the lvmid. Also, you can determine the lvmid on Solaris, Linux, and OS X platforms with the ps command, and on Windows with the Windows Task Manager.
hostname — A hostname or IP address that indicates the target host. If the hostname value is omitted, then the target host is the local host.
port — The default port for communicating with the remote server. If the hostname value is omitted or the protocol value specifies an optimized, local protocol, then the port value is ignored. Otherwise, treatment of the port parameter is implementation-specific. For the default rmi protocol, the port value indicates the port number for the rmiregistry on the remote host. If the port value is omitted and the protocol value indicates rmi, then the default rmiregistry port (1099) is used.
servername — The treatment of the servername parameter depends on implementation. For the optimized local protocol, this field is ignored. For the rmi protocol, it represents the name of the RMI remote object on the remote host.

👑 OPTIONS 👑

The jstat command supports two types of options, general options and output options. General options cause the jstat command to display simple usage and version information. Output options determine the content and format of the statistical output.

🚨 All options and their functionality are subject to change or removal in future releases.

💅 General Options

If you specify one of the general options, then you cannot specify any other option or parameter. No mixing, bestie.

-help — Displays a help message.
-options — Displays a list of static options. See Output Options.

🌈 Output Options

If you do not specify a general option, then you can specify output options. Output options determine the content and format of the jstat command's output, and consist of a single statOption, plus any of the other output options (-h, -t, and -J). The statOption must come first. 🚨

Output is formatted as a table, with columns that are separated by spaces. A header row with titles describes the columns. Use the -h option to set the frequency at which the header is displayed. Column header names are consistent among the different options. In general, if two options provide a column with the same name, then the data source for the two columns is the same.

Use the -t option to display a time stamp column, labeled Timestamp as the first column of output. The Timestamp column contains the elapsed time, in seconds, since the target JVM started. The resolution of the time stamp is dependent on various factors and is subject to variation due to delayed thread scheduling on heavily loaded systems.

Use the interval and count parameters to determine how frequently and how many times, respectively, the jstat command displays its output.

⚠️ Note: Do not to write scripts to parse the jstat command's output because the format might change in future releases. If you write scripts that parse jstat command output, then expect to modify them for future releases of this tool.

-statOption — Determines the statistics information the jstat command displays. The following lists the available options. Use the -options general option to display the list of options for a particular platform installation. See Stat Options and Output.
- class: Displays statistics about the behavior of the class loader.
- compiler: Displays statistics about the behavior of the Java HotSpot VM Just-in-Time compiler.
- gc: Displays statistics about the behavior of the garbage collected heap.
- gccapacity: Displays statistics about the capacities of the generations and their corresponding spaces.
- gccause: Displays a summary about garbage collection statistics (same as -gcutil), with the cause of the last and current (when applicable) garbage collection events.
- gcnew: Displays statistics of the behavior of the new generation.
- gcnewcapacity: Displays statistics about the sizes of the new generations and its corresponding spaces.
- gcold: Displays statistics about the behavior of the old generation and metaspace statistics.
- gcoldcapacity: Displays statistics about the sizes of the old generation.
- gcmetacapacity: Displays statistics about the sizes of the metaspace.
- gcutil: Displays a summary about garbage collection statistics.
- printcompilation: Displays Java HotSpot VM compilation method statistics.
-h n — Displays a column header every n samples (output rows), where n is a positive integer. Default value is 0, which displays the column header the first row of data.
-t — Displays a timestamp column as the first column of output. The time stamp is the time since the start time of the target JVM.
-JjavaOption — Passes javaOption to the Java application launcher. For example, -J-Xms48m sets the startup memory to 48 MB. For a complete list of options, see java(1).

🌟 Stat Options and Output

The following information summarizes the columns that the jstat command outputs for each statOption.

🧚 `-class` option

Class loader statistics.

Loaded — Number of classes loaded.
Bytes — Number of kBs loaded.
Unloaded — Number of classes unloaded.
Bytes — Number of Kbytes unloaded.
Time — Time spent performing class loading and unloading operations.

💀 `-compiler` option

Java HotSpot VM Just-in-Time compiler statistics.

Compiled — Number of compilation tasks performed.
Failed — Number of compilations tasks failed.
Invalid — Number of compilation tasks that were invalidated.
Time — Time spent performing compilation tasks.
FailedType — Compile type of the last failed compilation.
FailedMethod — Class name and method of the last failed compilation.

🔥 `-gc` option

Garbage-collected heap statistics.

S0C — Current survivor space 0 capacity (kB).
S1C — Current survivor space 1 capacity (kB).
S0U — Survivor space 0 utilization (kB).
S1U — Survivor space 1 utilization (kB).
EC — Current eden space capacity (kB).
EU — Eden space utilization (kB).
OC — Current old space capacity (kB).
OU — Old space utilization (kB).
MC — Metaspace capacity (kB).
MU — Metacspace utilization (kB).
CCSC — Compressed class space capacity (kB).
CCSU — Compressed class space used (kB).
YGC — Number of young generation garbage collection events.
YGCT — Young generation garbage collection time.
FGC — Number of full GC events.
FGCT — Full garbage collection time.
GCT — Total garbage collection time.

🌸 `-gccapacity` option

Memory pool generation and space capacities.

NGCMN — Minimum new generation capacity (kB).
NGCMX — Maximum new generation capacity (kB).
NGC — Current new generation capacity (kB).
S0C — Current survivor space 0 capacity (kB).
S1C — Current survivor space 1 capacity (kB).
EC — Current eden space capacity (kB).
OGCMN — Minimum old generation capacity (kB).
OGCMX — Maximum old generation capacity (kB).
OGC — Current old generation capacity (kB).
OC — Current old space capacity (kB).
MCMN — Minimum metaspace capacity (kB).
MCMX — Maximum metaspace capacity (kB).
MC — Metaspace capacity (kB).
CCSMN — Compressed class space minimum capacity (kB).
CCSMX — Compressed class space maximum capacity (kB).
CCSC — Compressed class space capacity (kB).
YGC — Number of young generation GC events.
FGC — Number of full GC events.

⭐ `-gccause` option

This option displays the same summary of garbage collection statistics as the -gcutil option, but includes the causes of the last garbage collection event and (when applicable) the current garbage collection event. In addition to the columns listed for -gcutil, this option adds the following columns.

LGCC — Cause of last garbage collection
GCC — Cause of current garbage collection

🦋 `-gcnew` option

New generation statistics.

S0C — current survivor space 0 capacity, in kB 🫶
S1C — current survivor space 1 capacity, in kB 🫶
S0U — survivor space 0 utilization, in kB
S1U — survivor space 1 utilization, in kB
TT — tenuring threshold
MTT — maximum tenuring threshold
DSS — desired survivor size, in kB
EC — current eden space capacity, in kB
EU — eden space utilization, in kB
YGC — number of young generation GC events
YGCT — young generation garbage collection time

`-gcnewcapacity`</p> option

New generation space size statistics ✨ (yes, it's giving "how big is the nursery" energy)

NGCMN — minimum new generation capacity, in kB
NGCMX — maximum new generation capacity, in kB
NGC — current new generation capacity, in kB
S0CMX — maximum survivor space 0 capacity, in kB
S0C — current survivor space 0 capacity, in kB
S1CMX — maximum survivor space 1 capacity, in kB
S1C — current survivor space 1 capacity, in kB
ECMX — maximum eden space capacity, in kB
EC — current eden space capacity, in kB
YGC — number of young generation GC events
FGC — number of full GC events

`-gcold` option

Old generation and metaspace behavior statistics 💜 the grown-up part of the heap, no cap

MC — metaspace capacity, in kB
MU — metaspace utilization, in kB
CCSC — compressed class space capacity, in kB
CCSU — compressed class space used, in kB
OC — current old space capacity, in kB
OU — old space utilization, in kB
YGC — number of young generation GC events
FGC — number of full GC events
FGCT — full garbage collection time
GCT — total garbage collection time

`-gcoldcapacity` option

Old generation size statistics 🌸 just the sizes, bestie

OGCMN — minimum old generation capacity, in kB
OGCMX — maximum old generation capacity, in kB
OGC — current old generation capacity, in kB
OC — current old space capacity, in kB
YGC — number of young generation GC events
FGC — number of full GC events
FGCT — full garbage collection time
GCT — total garbage collection time

`-gcmetacapacity` option

Metaspace size statistics 🦋 the metaspace girlies stay winning

MCMN — minimum metaspace capacity, in kB
MCMX — maximum metaspace capacity, in kB
MC — metaspace capacity, in kB
CCSMN — compressed class space minimum capacity, in kB
CCSMX — compressed class space maximum capacity, in kB
YGC — number of young generation GC events
FGC — number of full GC events
FGCT — full garbage collection time
GCT — total garbage collection time

`-gcutil` option

Summary of garbage collection statistics ⭐ the one everyone screenshots and puts on their story, honestly

S0 — survivor space 0 utilization, as a percentage of the space's current capacity
S1 — survivor space 1 utilization, as a percentage of the space's current capacity
E — eden space utilization, as a percentage of the space's current capacity
O — old space utilization, as a percentage of the space's current capacity
M — metaspace utilization, as a percentage of the space's current capacity
CCS — compressed class space utilization, as a percentage
YGC — number of young generation GC events
YGCT — young generation garbage collection time
FGC — number of full GC events
FGCT — full garbage collection time
GCT — total garbage collection time

`-printcompilation` option

Java HotSpot VM compiler method statistics 🔥 what did the JIT just cook

Compiled — number of compilation tasks performed by the most recently compiled method
Size — number of bytes of byte code of the most recently compiled method
Type — compilation type of the most recently compiled method
Method — class name and method name identifying the most recently compiled method. The class name uses slash (/) instead of dot (.) as a name space separator. The method name is the method within the specified class. The format for these two fields is consistent with the HotSpot -XX:+PrintCompilation option.

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

This section presents some examples of monitoring a local JVM with an lvmid of 21891. (lvmid 21891 is our main character for the next few sections, lowkey iconic of it 💅)

The `gcutil` Option

This example attaches to lvmid 21891 and takes 7 samples at 250 millisecond intervals and displays the output as specified by the -gcutil option.

The output of this example shows that a young generation collection occurred between the third and fourth sample. The collection took 0.078 seconds and promoted objects from the eden space (E) to the old space (O), resulting in an increase of old space utilization from 66.80% to 68.19%. Before the collection, the survivor space was 97.02% utilized, but after this collection it is 91.03% utilized. Look at it go 😭 the whole life cycle in seven lines

jstat -gcutil 21891 250 7
  S0     S1     E      O      M     CCS    YGC     YGCT    FGC    FGCT     GCT
  0.00  97.02  70.31  66.80  95.52  89.14      7    0.300     0    0.000    0.300
  0.00  97.02  86.23  66.80  95.52  89.14      7    0.300     0    0.000    0.300
  0.00  97.02  96.53  66.80  95.52  89.14      7    0.300     0    0.000    0.300
 91.03   0.00   1.98  68.19  95.89  91.24      8    0.378     0    0.000    0.378
 91.03   0.00  15.82  68.19  95.89  91.24      8    0.378     0    0.000    0.378
 91.03   0.00  17.80  68.19  95.89  91.24      8    0.378     0    0.000    0.378
 91.03   0.00  17.80  68.19  95.89  91.24      8    0.378     0    0.000    0.378

Repeat the Column Header String

This example attaches to lvmid 21891 and takes samples at 250 millisecond intervals and displays the output as specified by -gcnew option. In addition, it uses the -h3 option to output the column header after every 3 lines of data. (bestie said "I will NOT be scrolling back up to remember what a column means" and honestly? valid 🫶)

In addition to showing the repeating header string, this example shows that between the second and third samples, a young GC occurred. Its duration was 0.001 seconds. The collection found enough active data that the survivor space 0 utilization (S0U) would have exceeded the desired survivor Size (DSS). As a result, objects were promoted to the old generation (not visible in this output), and the tenuring threshold (TT) was lowered from 31 to 2.

Another collection occurs between the fifth and sixth samples. This collection found very few survivors and returned the tenuring threshold to 31. Growth arc 🌱 then humble era 🌱

jstat -gcnew -h3 21891 250
 S0C    S1C    S0U    S1U   TT MTT  DSS      EC       EU     YGC     YGCT
  64.0   64.0    0.0   31.7 31  31   32.0    512.0    178.6    249    0.203
  64.0   64.0    0.0   31.7 31  31   32.0    512.0    355.5    249    0.203
  64.0   64.0   35.4    0.0  2  31   32.0    512.0     21.9    250    0.204
 S0C    S1C    S0U    S1U   TT MTT  DSS      EC       EU     YGC     YGCT
  64.0   64.0   35.4    0.0  2  31   32.0    512.0    245.9    250    0.204
  64.0   64.0   35.4    0.0  2  31   32.0    512.0    421.1    250    0.204
  64.0   64.0    0.0   19.0 31  31   32.0    512.0     84.4    251    0.204
 S0C    S1C    S0U    S1U   TT MTT  DSS      EC       EU     YGC     YGCT
  64.0   64.0    0.0   19.0 31  31   32.0    512.0    306.7    251    0.204

Include a Time Stamp for Each Sample

This example attaches to lvmid 21891 and takes 3 samples at 250 millisecond intervals. The -t option is used to generate a time stamp for each sample in the first column. ⏰ timestamps are such a serve, fr fr

The Timestamp column reports the elapsed time in seconds since the start of the target JVM. In addition, the -gcoldcapacity output shows the old generation capacity (OGC) and the old space capacity (OC) increasing as the heap expands to meet allocation or promotion demands. The old generation capacity (OGC) has grown from 11,696 kB to 13,820 kB after the eighty-first full garbage collection (FGC). The maximum capacity of the generation (and space) is 60,544 kB (OGCMX), so it still has room to expand. She's growing but she's not at her limit, periodt 💅

Timestamp      OGCMN    OGCMX     OGC       OC       YGC   FGC    FGCT    GCT
          150.1   1408.0  60544.0  11696.0  11696.0   194    80    2.874   3.799
          150.4   1408.0  60544.0  13820.0  13820.0   194    81    2.938   3.863
          150.7   1408.0  60544.0  13820.0  13820.0   194    81    2.938   3.863

Monitor Instrumentation for a Remote JVM

This example attaches to lvmid 40496 on the system named remote.domain using the -gcutil option, with samples taken every second indefinitely. remote bestie monitoring, we love to see it 🌈

The lvmid is combined with the name of the remote host to construct a vmid of 40496@remote.domain. This vmid results in the use of the rmi protocol to communicate to the default jstatd server on the remote host. The jstatd server is located using the rmiregistry command on remote.domain that is bound to the default port of the rmiregistry command (port 1099). iykyk 🧚

jstat -gcutil 40496@remote.domain 1000
... output omitted

👑 SEE ALSO

okay that's the whole page, bestie, you made it to the end 🎀 this one's straight out of JDK 8, dated 03 March 2015, and it's the jstat(1) page — go forth and vibe-check your heap, you absolute icon 💜✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from

arch rolling: jdk11-openjdk 11.0.32.1.u1-1 · LicenseRef-Java
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

jstat(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

💜 VIRTUAL MACHINE IDENTIFIER 💜

👑 OPTIONS 👑

💅 General Options

🌈 Output Options

🌟 Stat Options and Output

🧚 -class option

💀 -compiler option

🔥 -gc option

🌸 -gccapacity option

⭐ -gccause option

🦋 -gcnew option

-gcnewcapacity</p> option

-gcold option

-gcoldcapacity option

-gcmetacapacity option

-gcutil option

-printcompilation option