macmemana

The Ultimate macOS Memory Analysis Tool

macmemana (or simply mma) is a high-performance, terminal-based memory analyzer engineered specifically for macOS. Unlike generic tools, it leverages Apple's native footprint and vmmap utilities to demystify complex memory metrics—distinguishing between physical footprint, compressed memory, and actual swap usage with precision.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Instant Startup: Launches immediately with a lightweight scan, then progressively streams deep memory analysis in the background. No more staring at loading screens.
• 💎 Accurate Swap Accounting: Solves the "missing swap" mystery by digging into footprint data to calculate the exact swapped_total per process, normalizing it against system-wide kernel reports.
• 📊 Interactive TUI: A beautiful, responsive interface built with ratatui. Sort, filter, and monitor processes in real-time.
• ⚡ Dual Binary Support: Install once, use macmemana or the handy short alias mma.
• 🛠 CLI Mode: Robust one-shot output mode for scripts, generating detailed reports or JSON-friendly data.
• 🛡 System-Aware: Automatically handles macOS-specific memory quirks (compressed memory, purgeable pages, shared cache) that confuse cross-platform tools.

📦 Installation

From Crates.io

cargo install macmemana

From Source

git clone https://github.com/W-Mai/macmemana.git
cd macmemana
cargo install --path .

🚀 Usage

Interactive Mode (TUI)

For the most accurate results—especially for system processes and other users' applications—running with sudo is highly recommended.

sudo mma
# or
sudo macmemana

Why sudo? macOS restricts access to detailed memory maps (vmmap/footprint) of processes not owned by the current user. Without root privileges, mma can only deeply analyze your own processes, leading to incomplete system-wide statistics.

CLI Mode

Generate a detailed memory report directly to stdout:

sudo mma --cli

Sort by specific columns:

# Sort by physical footprint (descending)
sudo mma --cli --sort phys

# Sort by swap usage (descending) - Default
sudo mma --cli --sort swap

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

🛠 Technical Details

macmemana uses a multi-stage analysis pipeline:

1. Fast Path: Immediately gathers basic process info via sysinfo.
2. Deep Path: Spawns background workers to run footprint on process batches.
3. Normalization: Aggregates per-process swap estimates and reconciles them with sysctl vm.swapusage to ensure the "Total Swap" matches the OS report perfectly.

📄 License

MIT License © 2026 Benign X