Memory Creeps Up

[Michael Molino]

If I remeber correctly from my CS211 (Computer Architecture) class at Rutgers, 
your RAM should pretty much always be full (unless you just restarted).  
Calls to the hard disk are relatively slow.  Whenever your computer need some 
info it first scans the RAM (fast) then the harddisk if it isn't found in 
RAM.  If it does need to go to your harddrive, it will copy what it needs and 
what ever is stored around it.  It does this because it guesses that if you 
are accessing memory location XYZ now, you may need XYZ plus or minus 1 soon 
so might as well grab it now to save time.  Whatever has been sitting in RAM 
the longest without being accessed gets deleted to make space.

Make sense?  It's 7:00 and I've been at work since 8:30 and it's Monday so I 
make no guarantees.

On Monday 15 September 2003 04:35 pm, Longman, Bill wrote:
> > Subject: Memory Creeps Up
> >
> >
> > Hello -
> >
> > I'm running a YDL server running MySQL.  It has 192MB RAM.
> > when I ran
> > Top on Friday, only 49MB or so was used in non GUI mode.
> > When I looked
> > today, it was up to 185MB used with very little free.  What
> > can I do do
> > prevent this or what can I do to clear memory without rebooting the
> > server?
>
> You want this to happen, actually. The Linux kernel will manage memory and
> store it in RAM until it runs out. Then, it will start swapping out
> unneeded code to swap space. Most of the used memory is disk buffer space.
> That shrinks as real code needs more RAM.
> _______________________________________________
> yellowdog-newbie mailing list
> yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
> http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-newbie

-- 
Michael Molino
973-769-0994
michaelmolino@ydl.net
AIM: NobodysHero01
"Embrace this moment.  Remember.  We are eternal.  All this pain is an 
illusion."