[CentOS] What is eating my memory?

[Paul]

On Wed, 2007-08-29 at 22:56 -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> The tail of two systems and one hard drive.
> 
> I install centos 5 on a HD while it is in a Compaq with 256Mb memory.  
> After install, i am in graphics mode (Gnome) and top reports not quite 
> all 256Mb used.
> 
> Then I move the HD to a decTOP with 512Mb memory.  I am running 
> non-graphics (init 3).  I ssh into the unit and top reports not quite 
> all of that used.....
> 
> So what ate up more than 256Mb memory (X is not running)?
> 
> Perhaps there is something I did not clean up properly wrt the move.

Linux differs from windows in that it tries to maximize memory usage.
If applications are not using the available memory it will use most of
the remainder for buffers and disk cache.  The idea is to make the best
use of the resource as possible ... if it's not being used by something
then it's being wasted.

There are situations where an application will use all available system
memory and the system will start using swap (virtual memory) and then
things will start to slow down.

Using free as suggested by William is a good way to get an initial
measurement as to if there is a problem or not


> 
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