[CentOS] Re: Where is cached memory going?

[Scott Silva]

on 8-19-2008 9:31 AM ABBAS KHAN spake the following:
> As by the time, I've learned that Linux works by caching apps by using a 
> lot of RAM and then it reallocates the new stuff by cleaning the old 
> cached pages from memory as compared to other OSs. With 2 gigs of RAM 
> often I see the free memory only as 100-400MB. Using TOP or PS, it 
> doesn't look like any program or process is using excessive memory (the 
> highest process is seen with 1-2% total memory). *So, my questions are:*
> 
>  what programs are using that much of memory? (or cached memory)
> Is that really due to a lot of cache in the memory
> /*if yes, then, is there a way to parse the cache to findout what 
> applications are eating up the cache?*/
> /*how to free the cached memory?*/
> 
> 
Why do you need to free the cached memory? That is just how linux works. 
Having frequently accessed files in the cache more than offsets the time it 
takes to release the old pages. Trying to have a bunch of free memory will 
only make your system slower as it has to read all that data from DASD instead 
of ram. (I just dated myself with the DASD comment)

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