Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S937224AbWLDRIj (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 12:08:39 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S937225AbWLDRIj (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 12:08:39 -0500 Received: from inti.inf.utfsm.cl ([200.1.21.155]:45639 "EHLO inti.inf.utfsm.cl" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S937224AbWLDRIh (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 12:08:37 -0500 Message-Id: <200612041707.kB4H7Mnh020665@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl> To: Aucoin@Houston.RR.com cc: "'Kyle Moffett'" , "'Tim Schmielau'" , "'Andrew Morton'" , torvalds@osdl.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, clameter@sgi.com Subject: Re: la la la la ... swappiness In-Reply-To: Message from "Aucoin" of "Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:39:24 MDT." <200612041439.kB4EdGFn025092@ms-smtp-03.texas.rr.com> X-Mailer: MH-E 7.4.2; nmh 1.1; XEmacs 21.5 (beta27) Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:07:22 -0300 From: "Horst H. von Brand" X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (inti.inf.utfsm.cl [200.1.21.155]); Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:07:23 -0300 (CLST) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1641 Lines: 38 Aucoin wrote: [...] > The definition of perfectly good here may be up for debate or > someone can explain it to me. This perfectly good data was > cached under the tar yet hours after the tar has completed the > pages are still cached. That means that there isn't a need for that memory at all (and so they stay around; why actively delete data (using up resources!) needlessly when it would be a win to have them around in the (admittedly remote) case they'll be needed again?), or the whole memory handling in Linux is very broken. I'd vote for the former, i.e., your problems have nothing to do with memory pressure and swapping. That would explain why your maneuvres didn't make a difference... In any case, how do you know it is the tar data that stays around, and not just that the number of pages "in use" stays roughly constant? Please explain again: - What you are doing, step by step - What are your exact requirements - In what exact way is it missbehaving. Please tell /in detail/ how you determine the real behaviour, not your deductions. [Yes, I'm in my "dense" day today.] -- Dr. Horst H. von Brand User #22616 counter.li.org Departamento de Informatica Fono: +56 32 2654431 Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria +56 32 2654239 Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile Fax: +56 32 2797513 - 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/