A quick-and-dirty way to get the memory usage of the current process in Linux. Read /proc/self/status. The line VmHWM will tell you the memory highwater mark (max used) and VmRSS will give you the current memory usage.

gistfile1.txt

:) cat /proc/self/status
Name:   cat
State:  R (running)
SleepAVG:       89%
Tgid:   13668
Pid:    13668
PPid:   24697
TracerPid:      0
Uid:    <removed>
Gid:    <removed>
FDSize: 256
Groups: <removed>
VmPeak:     3816 kB
VmSize:     3816 kB
VmLck:         0 kB
VmHWM:       648 kB
VmRSS:       648 kB
VmData:      164 kB
VmStk:        96 kB
VmExe:        20 kB
VmLib:      1348 kB
VmPTE:        20 kB
Threads:        1
SigQ:   0/65536
SigPnd: 0000000000000000
ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
SigBlk: 0000000000000000
SigIgn: 0000000000000000
SigCgt: 0000000000000000
CapInh: 0000000000000000
CapPrm: 0000000000000000
CapEff: 0000000000000000
Cpus_allowed:   03
Mems_allowed:   00000000,00000001