[Wylug-discuss] Re: [Wylug-help] Using tmpfs on /dev/shm

[Dave Fisher]

On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 07:45:44AM +0100, gARetH baBB wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Jun 2004, Dave Fisher wrote:
>
> > If the superficial view is accurate, what do I need to to to get the
> > kernel/apps to use it?
>
> Erm, it's just a filing system like any other file system - if you point
> things to use it they will use it.

Sorry to be so dim, but if "it's _just_ a filing system" why does my
system automatically mount it and allocate so much memory to it?

I don't remember ever typing the settings which appeared in my fstab
(that's not to say that I didn't carelessly check some install/config
option at some time in the past).

My, probably incorrect, understanding is that tmpfs can use both HDD and
RAM memory and that problems can occur when you allocate more memory to
it than you have free memory available.

How do I find out which type of memory it is using, and set how much it
uses of either type?

What little documentation I can find is pretty fragmented ... to say the
least.

Dave