[linux-help] Re: Consumption of free memory

[james l <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Root/Great Overall Dictator replies:
> Thanks John,
>       You explained it in a way which the Ph.D.'s at work could not. I didn't
> understand why, when I went from 96M of RAM to 384M of RAM the os
> expanded its' use of memory. I tried the ps aux command and I didn't
> notice any errant processes and I hadn't messed with cron so I knew it
> wasn't some scheduled process. So, if I understand you correctly, the
> buffers and cache are still useable by processes outside the os but the
> os is preserving the space in RAM to allow for faster operation? Let me
> know if this is a correct interpretation. Thanks.
> 
> -John
> 

Pretty much. If you look at top it has a cached: (lower right above the
processes) on my machine right now (with 96MB ram)  it has about 30 MB
used for cache, and on another (128) it has about 40 MB used for cache. This
is normal, and is much better than just using the hard drive's cache (Maybe
2MB for non-high end stuff. (I have seen 16MB on a really really expensive
drive >1000.) Having linux use extra memory (which is cheap) vs buying a very
expensive hard drive(s) makes sense.

James L

(For the sake of fairness, it must be noted that windows does cache, but
not as well)
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