Re: Memory accounting problem in 2.4.13, 2.4.14pre, and possibly 2.4.14

[Mike Fedyk <mfedyk@matchmail.com>]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 02:03:35PM -0800, Mike Fedyk wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am trying to track down a memory accounting problem I've seen ever since I
> tried a 2.4.13 based kernel.  Specifically I've noticed an overflow for the
> "Cached" entry in /proc/meminfo, but also the numbers don't add up to the
> total memory count.  Shouldn't they add up?  If they should, I haven't seen
> one that does....
> 
> I first noticed it on:
> 2.4.13freeswan-1.91+ac5+preempt+netdev_random+vm_freeswap
> 2.4.14-pre6+preempt+netdev_random+ext3_0.9.14-2414p5
> 
> I thought it may be preempt so I tried:
> 2.4.14-pre8+netdev_random-p7+xsched+ext3_0.9.14-2414p8+elevator
> 
> But I still get the same problem with "Cached".
> 
> Now I'm trying to see if it could be ext3 with:
> 2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8
> 
> And I haven't noticed the problem after 16 hours uptime.  Sometimes it would
> show earlier, or later.
> 
> >From current (2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8) kernel:
>         total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
> Mem:  261443584 254337024  7106560        0 58957824 76398592
> Swap: 199815168  1228800 198586368
> MemTotal:       255316 kB
> MemFree:          6940 kB
> MemShared:           0 kB
> Buffers:         57576 kB
> Cached:          73408 kB
> SwapCached:       1200 kB
> Active:          65048 kB
> Inactive:       138040 kB
> HighTotal:           0 kB
> HighFree:            0 kB
> LowTotal:       255316 kB
> LowFree:          6940 kB
> SwapTotal:      195132 kB
> SwapFree:       193932 kB
> 
> Subtracted from MemTotal should = 0:
> MemFree:          6940 kB
> Active:          65048 kB
> Inactive:       138040 kB
> = 45288 kB remaining
> 
> Shouldn't these numbers add up to MemTotal?
> 
> $ dpkg -l "*gcc*"|grep ii
> ii  gcc            2.95.4-8       The GNU C compiler.
> ii  gcc-2.95       2.95.4-0.01100 The GNU C compiler.
> 
> On Debian Sid.
> 
> I can provide more information upon request...
> 

To continue the results...

Now  : 1 day(s), 15:47:31 running Linux 2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8

has also exibited the problem with cached.

I'm going to try unpatched 2.4.14 now...

Mike