[Gllug] memory usage in linux

[David Damerell]

On Tuesday, 27 Aug 2002, Pavel Bradut Boghita wrote:
>I have been using linux for over a year, but only recently started to learn 
>more about the system as such. By running 'top' I've noticed that a great 
>deal of memory is being used.

Linux aggressively caches disc pages in spare memory; once a disc page
makes it into memory, there's little reason to move it out unless the
memory is needed elsewhere. Hence, memory fills up and rarely empties,
except immediately after a process using lots of memory is killed. The
'buff' number quoted by top is indicative of how much memory is so
used (as opposed to being used as 'real' memory, IYSWIM); also, if the
numbers in the SIZE and RSS column are similar or the same, that
indicates little or no pressure on swap.

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug