Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262101AbUK0FrY (ORCPT ); Sat, 27 Nov 2004 00:47:24 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262100AbUK0Dus (ORCPT ); Fri, 26 Nov 2004 22:50:48 -0500 Received: from zeus.kernel.org ([204.152.189.113]:5572 "EHLO zeus.kernel.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262535AbUKZTdn (ORCPT ); Fri, 26 Nov 2004 14:33:43 -0500 To: Nick Warne Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: 2.4.28 -> ch..ch...changes.... References: <200411241957.14527.nick@linicks.net> From: Nix X-Emacs: because Hell was full. Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 11:53:58 +0000 In-Reply-To: <200411241957.14527.nick@linicks.net> (Nick Warne's message of "24 Nov 2004 23:27:43 -0000") Message-ID: <877jo8u8q1.fsf@amaterasu.srvr.nix> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) XEmacs/21.4 (Security Through Obscurity, linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2424 Lines: 59 On 24 Nov 2004, Nick Warne mused: > Normally memory slowly fills up, perhaps using swap for a bit under these > circumstances - but looking afterwards: This is a feature, not a bug. Free memory is wasted memory (although some has to be kept free for drivers that need GFP_ATOMIC allocations: i.e. `memory *now* dammit *now*'. > root@linuxamd:~# free > total used free shared buffers cached > Mem: 1292348 520012 772336 0 38596 327304 > -/+ buffers/cache: 154112 1138236 > Swap: 1959888 0 1959888 The only thing I can think of that causes this is something very memory-hungry that's just been killed, releasing a pile of pages back to the system. > But whatever, I am impressed indeed - somethings changed for the good!!! I see no signs of such a change on my 2.4.28 boxes: (UltraSPARC II) total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 509360 498432 10928 0 133568 52656 -/+ buffers/cache: 312208 197152 Swap: 1557264 143992 1413272 (Athlon IV) total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 775072 762744 12328 0 88304 322740 -/+ buffers/cache: 351700 423372 Swap: 1048560 81020 967540 (i586) total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 126992 123640 3352 0 11792 42012 -/+ buffers/cache: 69836 57156 Swap: 1245168 155560 1089608 The only suspiciously high free figure is on a 2.4.28 UML instance (2.4.28 + forward-ported 2.4.27-1 patches) on one of those machines: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 94000 66512 27488 0 2940 31260 -/+ buffers/cache: 32312 61688 Swap: 0 0 0 and that is trivially obviously caused by the instance's lack of swap :) -- `The sword we forged has turned upon us Only now, at the end of all things do we see The lamp-bearer dies; only the lamp burns on.' - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/