From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 19:11:07 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 19:10:54 -0400 Received: from dsl081-060-070.sfo1.dsl.speakeasy.net ([64.81.60.70]:13051 "EHLO uzo.telecoma.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 21 Aug 2001 19:10:48 -0400 Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 01:39:29 +0200 From: firenza@gmx.net To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: how to page_cache.max_percent? Message-ID: <20010822013929.E2275@telecoma.net> Mail-Followup-To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org hi, the following scenario: * kernel 2.4.9 smp * machine with 6GB physical memory * multiple processes are relying on a 3GB large data structure to be in memory (speed goes down the drain, when some pages are swapped out) * not every page in this 3GB data structure is used all the time * this data structure is loaded from files, so initially i end up having 3GB of used cache (visible in vmstat) now i start another memory intense process and discover via vmstat the following sensible behaviour: pagecache shrinks slowly and memory from the 3GB structure is swapped out at a faster rate... i don't care about the pagecache, i only care about having those 3GB in memory... is there a way to set a maximum size for the pagecache (afaik, page_cache.max_percent is not used)? or can i specify to always drain the pagecache before swapping out? cheers, -iowa