def vmstats():
    '''
    .. versionchanged:: 2016.3.2
        Return the virtual memory stats for this minion

    .. versionchanged:: 2016.11.4
        Added support for AIX

    CLI Example:

    .. code-block:: bash

        salt '*' status.vmstats
    '''
    def linux_vmstats():
        '''
        linux specific implementation of vmstats
        '''
        ret = {}
        try:
            with salt.utils.files.fopen('/proc/vmstat', 'r') as fp_:
                stats = salt.utils.stringutils.to_unicode(fp_.read())
        except IOError:
            pass
        else:
            for line in stats.splitlines():
                if not line:
                    continue
                comps = line.split()
                ret[comps[0]] = _number(comps[1])
        return ret

    def generic_vmstats():
        '''
        generic implementation of vmstats
        note: works on FreeBSD, SunOS and OpenBSD (possibly others)
        '''
        ret = {}
        for line in __salt__['cmd.run']('vmstat -s').splitlines():
            comps = line.split()
            if comps[0].isdigit():
                ret[' '.join(comps[1:])] = _number(comps[0].strip())
        return ret

    # dict that returns a function that does the right thing per platform
    get_version = {
        'Linux': linux_vmstats,
        'FreeBSD': generic_vmstats,
        'OpenBSD': generic_vmstats,
        'SunOS': generic_vmstats,
        'AIX': generic_vmstats,
    }

    errmsg = 'This method is unsupported on the current operating system!'
    return get_version.get(__grains__['kernel'], lambda: errmsg)()