From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753861AbXDJOPz (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:15:55 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753862AbXDJOPz (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:15:55 -0400 Received: from shawidc-mo1.cg.shawcable.net ([24.71.223.10]:19866 "EHLO pd4mo2so.prod.shaw.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753861AbXDJOPy (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:15:54 -0400 Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:15:09 -0600 From: Robert Hancock Subject: Re: Help Understanding Linux memory management In-reply-to: To: "Mouawad, Tony" Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Message-id: <461B9BED.6030208@shaw.ca> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit References: User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (Windows/20070221) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mouawad, Tony wrote: > Hello, > > I've been a MS Windows based programmer for a very long time and was > recently tossed in an environment where I am developing embedded apps on > the m68k / Linux platform. That makes me a Linux newbie. I started > asking a few questions on various IRC channels and was directed to this > group. So, I will start asking: > > These are questions derived from observations on the MCF 5475 CPU > running Linux 2.6.10 built for the m68k platform. Disk swapping is > disabled. > > 1) When physical memory runs low, the memory manager will try to use > memory currently allocated to the pagecache. Is this true? Yes. > 2) When vm.overcommit_memory = 2 (overcommit disabled), and memory runs > low, it appears that the memory manager does not try to use memory > currently allocated to pagecache. Is this true? Shouldn't be, what makes you think this is happening? > 3) Is it possible to disable the pagecache? Not as far as I know, it's unlikely this would be of any benefit. -- Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr@nospamshaw.ca Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/