[CentOS] What is eating my memory?

[William Warren]

your mahcine is fine.  swap is at zero.  You have most of your ram being 
used by cache.  This is also normal for a linux machine.  If an 
application needs to ram being used for file caching the kernel will 
clear out that portion of cache and the program will have access to it.



Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> Below is both results...
> 
> William Warren wrote:
>> easier way....log in as root and type the word free to get a much 
>> slimmer version of that information. If the numbers look odd(after 
>> posting them here) then the more expansive option below is needed.
>>
>> Alfred von Campe wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> Have you done any I/O on the system? The memory could be in use by 
>>> buffers. Please post the contents of /proc/meminfo. Your real free 
>>> memory should be the sum of MemFree + Buffers + Cached.
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 495228 488440 6788 0 21404 310364
> -/+ buffers/cache: 156672 338556
> Swap: 1572856 0 1572856
> 
> MemTotal: 495228 kB
> MemFree: 12468 kB
> Buffers: 22328 kB
> Cached: 301152 kB
> SwapCached: 0 kB
> Active: 272448 kB
> Inactive: 182272 kB
> HighTotal: 0 kB
> HighFree: 0 kB
> LowTotal: 495228 kB
> LowFree: 12468 kB
> SwapTotal: 1572856 kB
> SwapFree: 1572856 kB
> Dirty: 21356 kB
> Writeback: 0 kB
> AnonPages: 131252 kB
> Mapped: 36676 kB
> Slab: 20784 kB
> PageTables: 3312 kB
> NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
> Bounce: 0 kB
> CommitLimit: 1820468 kB
> Committed_AS: 394416 kB
> VmallocTotal: 524280 kB
> VmallocUsed: 3080 kB
> VmallocChunk: 521072 kB
> HugePages_Total: 0
> HugePages_Free: 0
> HugePages_Rsvd: 0
> Hugepagesize: 4096 kB
> 
> 
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-- 
My "Foundation" verse:
Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and 
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt 
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their 
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

-- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape"
CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician)

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