From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 3 Jan 2001 15:16:51 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 3 Jan 2001 15:16:31 -0500 Received: from smtpde02.sap-ag.de ([194.39.131.53]:17093 "EHLO smtpde02.sap-ag.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 3 Jan 2001 15:16:28 -0500 To: Craig Schlenter Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: strange swap behaviour - test11pre4 In-Reply-To: <20010103123230.C23323@qualica.com> <20010103160802.A8544@qualica.com> From: Christoph Rohland In-Reply-To: <20010103160802.A8544@qualica.com> Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Capitol Reef) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: 03 Jan 2001 20:49:25 +0100 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Craig Schlenter writes: > [snip, vmstat stuff, me] > > There is a perl program running (80 Meg's in size, 20 Megs > > resident) that is chatting to a database and building up a large > > hash in memory. The machine has 64M of RAM. The bit that doesn't > > make sense is why the cache is so large - the VM seems to have got > > stuck paging in stuff from swap repeatedly (bits of the perl > > program it would seem). Surely it should shrink the cache to > > provide more breathing room or am I being an idiot about this? > > $idiot++; You probably got fooled by the new vm: All shm pages are now in the page cache and thus appear as 'cached'. But they cannot be shrinked away... So I would vote for $idiot--; ;-) Greetings Christoph P.S: I expect this to become an FAQ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/