Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 5 Nov 2001 22:04:50 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 5 Nov 2001 22:04:42 -0500 Received: from adsl-63-194-239-202.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net ([63.194.239.202]:18419 "EHLO mmp-linux.matchmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 5 Nov 2001 22:04:28 -0500 Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 19:04:17 -0800 From: Mike Fedyk To: David Chow Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Dirty Page cache in 2.4 Message-ID: <20011105190417.A665@mikef-linux.matchmail.com> Mail-Followup-To: David Chow , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <3BE7513D.40403@rcn.com.hk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3BE7513D.40403@rcn.com.hk> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.23i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 10:55:57AM +0800, David Chow wrote: > Dear all, > > I've heard the memory management in 2.4 swap out dirty pages. Is it true > that dirty pages refer to the dirty pages of page cache and they may > also be swapped out? Thanks. > No, very untrue. To be more specific, there are dirty filesystem cache pages, and dirty application pages. Dirty filesystem pages will be written to the FS, while dirty application pages will be swapped out. If an application page is chosen for swap out and it is not dirty, the VM will just discard that page completely because it can beloaded from the app or library on disk when needed again... BTW, both VMs would do this. This behavior is very fundamental to VM design. 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/