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From: "John S. Dyson" <toor@dyson.iquest.net>
Message-Id: <199704041434.JAA25607@dyson.iquest.net>
Subject: Re: RAM usage
In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.3.96.970404100618.3330A-100000@tom.fe.up.pt> from "ee96199@tom.fe.up.pt" at "Apr 4, 97 10:10:52 am"
To: ee96199@tom.fe.up.pt
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 09:34:47 -0500 (EST)
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
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> 
> Since I moved from Linux to FreeBSD I was a bit surprised when I found out
> that FreeBSD programs use far more memory that their similars in Linux.
> 
> At the moment I have 16MB of RAM and with only 9 processes running
> (3 gettys, syslogd, cron, inetd and system procs like swapper or init)
> I only get (with top) 7MB of free memory particioned by 5MB for cache 
> and 2MB for buffer...
> 
> The strange thing is that a 'ps aux' shows that this 9 processes use
> 4MB.
> 
> Is this normal?
>
Yes, note that the "cache" memory is almost the same as "free" memory
in other OSes.  FreeBSD aggressively caches file contents (both
executables and data files.)

John