Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 21:34:35 +0100 From: Ben Smithurst <ben@FreeBSD.org> To: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: FAQ addition Message-ID: <20000713213435.M48641@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <20000713011414.B11472@kilt.nothing-going-on.org> References: <396A79E9.F3AD3D1@home.com> <20000713011414.B11472@kilt.nothing-going-on.org>
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Nik Clayton wrote:
> 4. Read the -questions mailing list, and make sure that our FAQ is
> actually answering questions that are frequently asked.
I'm intending to add something like this,
--- book.sgml 2000/07/11 21:36:22 1.70
+++ book.sgml 2000/07/13 20:32:50
@@ -8411,6 +8411,20 @@
</answer></qandaentry>
<qandaentry><question>
+<para>Why does <command>top</command> show very little free memory when I
+have very few programs running?</para></question><answer>
+
+<para>The simple answer is that free memory is wasted memory.
+Any memory that your programs don't actively allocate is used
+within the FreeBSD kernel as disk cache. The values shown by
+<command>top</command> labelled as <emphasis>Inact</emphasis>,
+<emphasis>Cache</emphasis>, and <emphasis>Buf</emphasis> are all
+cached data at different aging levels. You actually want as little
+<emphasis>Free</emphasis> memory as possible.</para>
+
+</answer></qandaentry>
+
+<qandaentry><question>
<para> Why use (what are) a.out and ELF executable formats?
</para></question><answer>
My only worry is that it's not detailed enough. Perhaps I could search
the -questions archive to find other answers from the past and combine
bits from them all... I'll look at that shortly.
--
Ben Smithurst / ben@FreeBSD.org / PGP: 0x99392F7D
FreeBSD Documentation Project /
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