Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2859 mails)

["Rajko M." <rmatov101@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 08 May 2007 19:29, Registration Account wrote:
> Carlos,
> Exactly the response I was looking for. After having to deal with the
> appalling memory management of other PC  O/S you have answered the
> question perfectly.
>
> However, I now need to know is there a process that removes items from
> cache after a period of time or will available memory be used to cache
> continually without being flushed.
>
> Now my query comes down to "unused cache flush time" and
> "flush cache due to processing demands determination"
>
> Thanks
> Scott
>
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
> > The Monday 2007-05-07 at 07:25 +1000, Registration Account wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > > For example I have 2 GIG of RAM currently and am thinking of changing
> > > it to 4 GIG. I understand that the kernel can use more file cacheing,
> > > but that is what I do not want to know. With the superior way the Linux
> > > Kernel  manages Memory, if we remove the increased file caching ability
> > > will the Kernel  be able to utilise the extra memory  registers for
> > > processing.
> >
> > I think you got it wrong... if there is more memory, programs will be
> > able
> > to use more memory, /if/ they request it. All unused memory will simply
> > end up being used as cache.
> >
> > If currently, with 2G, you see no swap used, increasing the ram will not
> > give more memory to programs.

Scott,

play a little with command "free" starting programs and you will see that 
cache is disappearing in favor of programs. 

$ free
>             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
>Mem:        898672     639876     258796          0      43044     387420
-/+ buffers/cache:     209412     689260
Swap:      2104472          0    2104472

Started new KDE session:
$ free
>             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
>Mem:        898672     737620     161052          0      49596     392664
-/+ buffers/cache:     295360     603312
Swap:      2104472          0    2104472

Buffers belong to applications, with new session they went from 209412 kB to 
295360 kB and in the same time cache went from 689260 to 603312. 

$ cat /proc/meminfo 
gives more information. Though the only explanation is somewhat obsolete:
http://www.redhat.com/advice/tips/meminfo.html
 
-- 
Regards,
Rajko.
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