Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 06:46:43 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 06:46:26 -0500 Received: from adsl-63-194-239-202.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net ([63.194.239.202]:30191 "EHLO mmp-linux.matchmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 30 Oct 2001 06:45:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 03:46:23 -0800 From: Mike Fedyk To: Frank Dekervel Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: need help interpreting 'free' output. Message-ID: <20011030034623.C21884@mikef-linux.matchmail.com> Mail-Followup-To: Frank Dekervel , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <200110301132.MAA22471@lambik.cc.kuleuven.ac.be> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200110301132.MAA22471@lambik.cc.kuleuven.ac.be> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.23i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Oct 30, 2001 at 12:32:52PM +0100, Frank Dekervel wrote: > so now there is 220 meg used memory right ? > and the memory is definitely used, because as soon as i start a memory hog > the system hits swap ... > > so what am i missing here ? > should i provide more info about my kernel configuration ? vmstat numbers ? > Ahh, are you a new convert from a 2.2 kernel? In 2.4 the kernel will swap out much earlier to make room for the running programs, and disk cache. This is normal. Earlier 2.4 kernels didn't do so well, but I won't go into detail because there is already enough about that in the archives... When you watch vmstat, if you see a lot of swapping traffic without much good reason, then you should probably report something... Mike - 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/