David Hollister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 21:29, Eamon Caddigan wrote: >> Sorry if this is a trivial question... >> >> But I recently upgraded my RAM (from 245 MB to 768 MB), and because of >> this, I've been paying close attention to my memory usage. I was pretty >> surprised to see that I'm still hitting swap after running a couple >> simple apps in X. >> >> ps shows that none of the currently running processes are using a >> significant percentage of my RAM. Logging out and back in doesn't help. >> I can only guess that the kernel is using all this memory -- can anyone >> recommend a tool to watch kernel memory usage, or any possible fixes for >> this? I can't believe I'm using more physical memory now than I >> previously had in physical and swap together! > > It's probably not the kernel per-se, but the filesystem's buffer cache. > Run "free" and look in the "cached" column. The fs buffer cache will > use as much memory as you have. You will still hit swap occasionally, > but generally, buffers should be purged from the cache to allow other > processes access to physical memory when needed.
Ah ha, there's almost 500 MB cached! I figured it was something like this going on -- my system wasn't slowing down, but I was surprised to see all the memory tied up. Now that I know this is normal, my mind is set at ease. Thanks for the replies! -Eamon -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
