From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265335AbTL3WUs (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Dec 2003 17:20:48 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265880AbTL3WUS (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Dec 2003 17:20:18 -0500 Received: from sitemail3.everyone.net ([216.200.145.37]:55480 "EHLO omta08.mta.everyone.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263692AbTL3WTA (ORCPT ); Tue, 30 Dec 2003 17:19:00 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: MIME-tools 5.41 (Entity 5.404) Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 14:18:58 -0800 (PST) From: john moser To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Slab allocator . . . cache? WTF is it? Reply-To: bluefoxicy@linux.net X-Originating-Ip: [68.33.187.247] Message-Id: <20031230221859.15F503956@sitemail.everyone.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mem: 775616k total, 747740k used, 27876k free, 96584k buffers Swap: 250480k total, 71340k used, 179140k free, 298852k cached This is somewhat distressing. Last time this happened, I started opening every program I had (including every OpenOffice.org product and every browser I had installed), and the "cached" value dropped quickly. I'm wondering, what IS cache? It seems to increase even when swap is not used, and sometimes when there's no swap partition enabled. It also seems to cause me to run into swap when I have ample ram available, assuming that cache is just some sort of cache that is copied from and mirrors another portion of ram for some sort of speed increase. It's wasteful to me, and I want to more understand its implimentation and its purpose, and in all honesty limit its impact if possible. I got this RAM upgrade because I was using about 676M of RAM total, including swap, at peak; and now I find myself using 820M RAM at peak and about 750-800 continually. As always, i'm not on the list, so I'd prefer to be CC'd replies. _____________________________________________________________ Linux.Net -->Open Source to everyone Powered by Linare Corporation http://www.linare.com/