Re: Controlling swap usage, is it possible?
On 04 Sep 2002 08:49:05 +0200
Adrian 'Dagurashibanipal' von Bidder <avbidder@fortytwo.ch> wrote:
> I don't know much about how swap management is handled, but it's pretty
> much global on a per page basis. You can influence the memory system by
> digging around (and chaning things) in /proc/sys/vm, but again, this is
> not on a per process basis, but it's about how aggressive the kernel is
> when swapping out things. (But I'm afraid there's not much docs about
> what the various numbers mean, so eventually you'll have to read the
> kernel code).
I'll have to give that a look. I tend to forget that /proc is there. =)
> Generally: I wouldn't try to keep unused applications in memory, as this
> takes memory away from the disk cache. And if you operate with the disk
> basically uncached, your system will be *really* slow.
The system has more than enough memory for keeping this application out of
swap and providing a reasonable performance with regard to disk cache. I
normally have, during the week, ~75% free physical and swap. The problem
is that unless I'm actively using the application (VMWare session) it is
for all purposes dormant, after a weekend this results in the entire
application's memory being moved to swap (which amounts to roughly 70-100
Megs). This is then pulled back to physical memory very very slowly,
appearently only on an as needed basis.
--
Jamin W. Collins
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