From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 16 13:44:12 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1684116A4CE for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:44:12 +0000 (GMT) Received: from t-x.dignus.nl (t-x.dignus.nl [83.219.88.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A9CD043D3F for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:44:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from colin@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl) Received: from localhost (localhost.dignus.nl [127.0.0.1]) by t-x.dignus.nl (Safehouse) with ESMTP id 3FDDE1A6EF; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:41:15 +0100 (CET) Received: from kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl (fia148-72.dsl.hccnet.nl [62.251.72.148]) by t-x.dignus.nl (Safehouse) with ESMTP id E20A01A6E1; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:41:08 +0100 (CET) Received: from kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl (localhost.kozy-kabin.nl [127.0.0.1]) by kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2218F61F3; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:44:04 +0100 (CET) Received: from localhost (colin@localhost)j2GDi4h5064034; Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:44:04 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from colin@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:43:59 +0100 From: "Colin J. Raven" To: Giorgos Keramidas In-Reply-To: <20050316133401.GA8571@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> Message-ID: <20050316143538.Y2949@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl> References: <20050316123901.U2949@kenmore.kozy-kabin.nl> <444qfbpydd.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> <20050316125446.GA7986@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> <20050316130754.GC7986@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> <20050316133401.GA8571@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Virus-Scanned: by RemSPAMd at ph230.plushosting.nl cc: Lowell Gilbert cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Illogical usage of swap X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:44:12 -0000 On Mar 16 at 15:34, Giorgos Keramidas suggested: >>>>>> Free memory (or the lack thereof) isn't the issue though. >>>>>> >>>>>> The issue is this: >>>>>> Swap: 8192M Total, 116K Used, 8192M Free >>>>>> and that's the piece of the puzzle that has us all utterly baffled. >>>>>> >>>>>> No way in creation this box should be swapping. >>>>> >>>>> Do you, by any chance, have vm.swap_idle_enabled set to 1? >>>> >>>> No, it isn't: >>>> gonzo# sysctl -a |grep vm.swap_idle_enabled >>>> vm.swap_idle_enabled: 0 >>> >>> Strange. AFAIK, processes are not swapped out to disk unless there is a >>> severe memory shortage. The usual case is to have them "paged" out, >>> which is a bit different. >> >> That was my understanding also, and that's what's baffling us > > Unless, of course, there _was_ a short period of memory shortage, some > processes were swapped out (a pair of idle getty instances, for example) > and they were never swapped back in because they are still idle. > > You can probably track this down to the specific process or processes > that have the PS_INMEM bit turned off in their proc->p_sflag. But 116K > seems too small to be a complete process. This is going way above my head now, but great as a learning process anyway! May I ask how we would go about tracking processes with the PS-INMEM bit turned off? That sounds as if - to me, still a journeyman on the road to knowledge - grepping multiple source trees might be necessary, which frankly is a daunting process (to say the very least). Is there one meta-search string that would show this? and if so, where should this search be applied? Regards, -Colin -- Colin J. Raven Wed Mar 16 14:43:00 CET 2005