Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 28 Dec 2005 09:53:28 +0100 | From | DervishD <> | Subject | Re: Memory, where's it going? |
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Hi Shaun :)
* Shaun <mailinglists@unix-scripts.com> dixit: > I see that free shows that 7.7GB is cached and i'm not sure why so > much is cached.
Because free memory is a *waste* of memory. Why leaving unused memory when it can be used for caching? The kernel will (up to some extent, I suppose) try to use all free memory for caching if no app needs it.
If you have 8GB of memory, it's a bit difficult to fill it just with the running apps, so the kernel cleverly uses the rest for caching things so the system runs faster.
For example, I have 1GB of RAM, and even when I use X (seldom...) I never eat up more than, let's say, 500MB. So, I have another 500MB of memory unused: the kernel uses it as cache, and that makes my system run much faster (I noticed a speed increase when I switch from 512 to 1G).
Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado
-- Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net http://www.pleyades.net & http://www.gotesdelluna.net It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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