Linda Walsh said the following on 05/06/2013 09:18 PM:
(which is a darn good reason not to move /tmp to being RAM based, as it gets used for large files sometimes, and .. oops. there goes your memory!...;-)
Or NOT as the case may be. First, a tmpfs is mapped to memory in a way that slightly more efficient than a disk based FS. Yes, disk based FSs are mapped to memory, buffers, for reading writing inodes and super-blocks as well as shuffling the B-trees and indexes and more. By comparison a tmps is incredibly light weight. Secondly, Linux uses a demand paged virtual memory so you're never going to run out of memory, for whatever value of 'never' applies. And it does apply here. If that memory is needed by a process it can be paged out to swap. Thirdly, when it can, and that certainly applies for executables, Linux and late model UNIX tries to "Map" a file into memory so the file is actually demand paged - just like above. Yes a programmer can open a file so its not mapped, thinking he's smarter than the system designer and knows better about that is and is not efficient, but I'd be reluctant to hire such people as that reasoning would only apply in special cases such as databases and the like. I think you're worrying about something that isn't a concern. Now if we're talking about my memory starved box from The Closet Of Anxieties ... no, its still a NOT, because I'm not doing anything on such a box that involves big files. Its only a small box... -- The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org