thanks - Re: [CentOS] What is eating my memory?

Thu Aug 30 13:51:09 UTC 2007
Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>

William Warren wrote:
> 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.
I finally figured that out this morning.  I see how the free command 
gives me better insight to my computer than top.  At least for how my 
memory is managing with my apps.
>
> 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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>