The page cache keeps growing

The page cache keeps growing

[paulh]

I'd like to throw this out to the group for opinions-

I'm working on a box using the 2.4.9 kernel that is saving a couple of
mpeg2
video streams, while playing back one of them.  The box also allows one
to
web browse, play mp3's and configure one's home network.

What I'm seeing is the page cache grow to huge sizes- to as much as
102MB
of 128MB of memory.  This is causing pages to be stolen from other
processes
in memory, so that when a user attempts to go to one of these, a long
wait ensues
while it's paged back in.

Is there any way to limit page cache size?  I've looked over the mm code
and
nothing pops out.  Has someone written a patch to do this?  I've checked
some
archives but have come up empty handed.

Thanks,
paulh

--
Paul Hansen, Software Engineer           paulh@ucentric.com
Ucentric Systems LLC                     Phone 978.823.8157
2 Clocktower Place, Suite 550            FAX   978.823.8101
Maynard, MA 01754                        www.ucentric.com

Re: The page cache keeps growing

[Allen Campbell]

On Fri, Nov 09, 2001 at 03:17:42PM -0500, paulh@ucentric.com wrote:
> I'd like to throw this out to the group for opinions-
> 
> I'm working on a box using the 2.4.9 kernel that is saving a couple of
> mpeg2
> video streams, while playing back one of them.  The box also allows one
> to
> web browse, play mp3's and configure one's home network.
> 
> What I'm seeing is the page cache grow to huge sizes- to as much as
> 102MB
> of 128MB of memory.  This is causing pages to be stolen from other
> processes
> in memory, so that when a user attempts to go to one of these, a long
> wait ensues
> while it's paged back in.

Move on to 2.4.14.  VM changes since 2.4.9 have been 'significant.'

-- 
  Allen Campbell       |  Lurking at the bottom of the
  allenc@verinet.com   |   gravity well, getting old.