[96787] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Disappearing memory
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thomas Ribbrock \(Design/DEG\))
Thu Oct 29 11:41:22 1998
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:19:14 +0000
From: "Thomas Ribbrock \(Design/DEG\)" <argathin@iname.com>
To: "redhat-list@redhat.com" <redhat-list@redhat.com>
Mail-Followup-To: "redhat-list@redhat.com" <redhat-list@redhat.com>
In-Reply-To: <01BE0328.D05D4060@andromeda.atdesk.com>; from Tim Medlock on Thu, Oct 29, 1998 at 10:42:23AM -0500
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Tim Medlock writes:
> I have a 450MHz 256MB RedHat Intel system.
>
> Does anyone know why memmory is not freed up when processes terminate? I don't have anything really running and I only have 8MB free memory.
This seems to be a FAQ, though I'm not sure whether it is actually covered
in any of the FAQ documents (as a reminder:
Red Hat User FAQ: http://www.best.com/~aturner/RedHat-FAQ/
Red Hat Linux FAQ: http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/RedHat-FAQ/ )
Anyway, the reason for this behaviour is that Linux dynamically uses free
memory as disk cache to speed up disk access. Once you load a program, the
cache will shrink and the free'd memory given to the program. All in all
this is a nice feature and nothing to worry about.
HTH,
Thomas
--
"Look, ma, no obsolete quotes!"
Thomas Ribbrock | http://www.bigfoot.com/~kaytan | ICQ#: 15839919
"You have to live on the edge of reality - to make your dreams come true!"
--
PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES!
http://www.redhat.com http://archive.redhat.com
To unsubscribe: mail redhat-list-request@redhat.com with
"unsubscribe" as the Subject.
