Re: swap space
>
> I asked earlier on this list about why memory is sucked up into buffers. I
> appreciate the answers and thank everyone who responded. Now I have a new
> question: why won't the kernel release the swap space that it apparently
> needed sometime earlier? The kernel is 2.0.30
>
> Here's a snapshot of /proc/meminfo. Please note that it has 29 megs of
> physical memory available, but still insist on using swap space.
[ snip ]
Why would the kernel release the swap if it isn't necessary? You are
talking about `using swap space' as if it is an activity. It isn't.
The pages in the swap space just sit there. If the kernel would page
them back into memory, and after some time memory became short again, it
would have to write them to disk _again_. Now that would be a waste. The
swapped out pages will be swapped in when they are needed, not earlier.
Eric
--
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl) | tel. office +31 40 2472189
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology | tel. lab. +31 40 2475032
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (TAK) | tel. fax +31 40 2455054
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