[Please don't top post! It makes your message harder to read, especially in long threads.] On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 01:23:51PM +0200, Thomas De Groote said > On the box I was talking about: > tdgroote@fkserv:~$ free > total used free shared buffers > cached > Mem: 901440 441232 460208 0 90296 > 247512 > -/+ buffers/cache: 103424 798016 > Swap: 481928 0 481928 > tdgroote@fkserv:~$ free -m > total used free shared buffers > cached > Mem: 880 430 449 0 88 > 241 > -/+ buffers/cache: 101 779 > Swap: 470 0 470 Yes, so you have 779MB of RAM free here. Not too shabby... > on another box, same symptoms (ext2 disks, no quota) : > thomas@vgkfgen1:~$ free > total used free shared buffers > cached > Mem: 482548 54044 428504 0 2496 > 36256 > -/+ buffers/cache: 15292 467256 > Swap: 497972 0 497972 > thomas@vgkfgen1:~$ free > total used free shared buffers > cached > Mem: 482548 240648 241900 0 2676 > 216620 > -/+ buffers/cache: 21352 461196 > Swap: 497972 0 497972 And again. The "cached" column has increased, but the "free column" in the "-/+ buffers/cache" has hardly changed. You had 467256KB of free memory to begin with, then two hours later you have 461196KB free. That doesn't seem like a very drastic change at all. > thomas@vgkfgen1:~$ free -m > total used free shared buffers > cached > Mem: 471 239 231 0 2 > 215 > -/+ buffers/cache: 20 450 > Swap: 486 0 486 This is the same as above, but the units are megabytes instead of kilobytes. No need t include both. As I said in my original mail, the kernel is using more and more memory up for disk cache as time goes on. Because your files are cached in memory, which is about 1000 times faster than your hard disk, everything feels quicker. If the memory is needed for an actual program, the kernel will clear out the disk cache and make it available to whatever app wants it. -- Rob Weir <rweir@ertius.org> | mlspam@ertius.org | Do I look like I want a CC? Words of the day: Defcon warfare SRI Treasury USCOI codes keyhole Forte freedom
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature