Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2702 mails)

[bcr@xxxxxxxxxxx (Bill C. Riemers)]

Georges-Henry Portrait wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I ran accross this "problem" when I had 64 mb. Now I added a 128 MB so now I
> have 196 Mb of RAM. but when I check mem use Linux use 170 but 20 MB are
> free. I thought that unused memory was wasted memory :) How comes those 20 Mb
> are still marked as free ??
> 
> Thanks for nay tip/help/clue
> 
> GH Portefait

There is a limit to the effectiveness of caching.  If data isn't occasionally synced
to disk, it becomes useless.  And if it has changed on disk, there is no point keeping
the obsolete data in memory, or taking the IO time to read the updated data until it
is actually needed.  Also, each time a process exits, it free's memory.  Unless you
are doing a lot of disk activity that memory won't be free instantly.  As a final
consideration, the caching algorithms are designed to try and maintain a certain
amount of water level, for optimal response time.

With all of these considerations, I wouldn't be concerned about your "wasted" memory.
But if you are still concerned, I can send you programs to eat your memory pretty 
quickly.  (e.g. There is a reason I keep 1 GB swap on my home computer.)

                                Bill

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