[ncolug] Re: perspective: memory usage
- From: Mike <bellyacres@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncolug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:02:30 -0500
Mike wrote:
> larry wrote:
>> I happened to do a quick check on memory, while doing nothing except
>> reading email, 1 download running, and a few terminal windows and
>> Nautilus open.
>> (I included the kernel version for those who care...)
>>
>> larry@monster:~ $ uname -a
>> Linux monster 2.6.15-27-amd64-k8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 8 17:56:50 UTC
>> 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>>
>> larry@monster:~ $ top
>>
>> top - 21:57:07 up 5:50, 3 users, load average: 1.07, 0.67, 0.39
>> Tasks: 100 total, 2 running, 98 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
>> Cpu(s): 30.2% us, 3.8% sy, 0.0% ni, 66.0% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi,
>> 0.0% si
>> Mem: 3512360k total, 1126460k used, 2385900k free, 101596k buffers
>> Swap: 2048276k total, 0k used, 2048276k free, 746976k cached
>>
>> What this shows is that a typical Linux system is now pushing past 1 GB
>> in normal usage.
>>
>>
>>
>
This is normal usage of me! I can't type what I want, then proof it at
this hour. This should read,
"This "perspective" isn't really accurate"
> This "perspective" is really accurate. The kernel has always tried to
> use all available memory. In reality what happens is pages are cached
> and then swaped out if another application or the kernel requires more
> pages.
>
> The above is very over simplified as I don't have that great of an
> understanding on the kernel at this level and how it handles memory.
>
> A much more accurate view (albeit too simplified again) would be to
> subtract the cached memory above from the used.
>
> mike@lenny:~$ uname -a
> Linux lenny 2.6.17-10-powerpc #2 Fri Oct 13 16:37:41 UTC 2006 ppc GNU/Linux
> mike@lenny:~$ top
> top - 23:35:18 up 4 days, 18:21, 2 users, load average: 0.18, 0.20, 0.24
> Tasks: 94 total, 3 running, 91 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 1.3%us, 0.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 97.4%id, 0.7%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si,
> 0.0%st
> Mem: 255900k total, 252736k used, 3164k free, 6064k buffers
> Swap: 249992k total, 128048k used, 121944k free, 76124k cached
>
> I'm running a newer kernel, nearly as many processes as you show, and
> don't have anywhere 1GB ram even when you combined true memory and swap.
>
> This system is also _very_ up to date. From a Ubuntu dist stand point
> anyway.
>
--
Mike
http://www.bellyacresoh.com
To unsubscribe send to ncolug-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the
Subject field.
Other related posts:
