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To: Ed Hudson <elh@p5.spnet.com>
cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: 950210-SNAP, VM Free 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 15 Feb 95 11:38:39 GMT."
             <199502151138.LAA00446@p5.spnet.com> 
From: David Greenman <davidg@Root.COM>
Reply-To: davidg@Root.COM
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 15:25:26 -0800
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
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>	my apologies for my previous incomplete mail message.
>	i was trying out a feature i hadn't used before in my mail
>	system...
>
>	but i am having a problem with disappearing memory space.
>
>	i'm running 950210-SNAP, and i'm experiencing a significant
>	VM free memory leak, just doing normal long (big) compiles.
>
>	here's what top thinks before and after the long compile.
>	after the compile, the system is quiet:
>
>		load averages:  0.07,  0.03,  0.01    11:07:00
>		41 processes:  1 running, 40 sleeping
>
>  --->>>	Memory: 14M Act 1520K Inact 2860K Wired 13M Free 
>  (before)
>
>
>
>		load averages:  0.33,  0.59,  0.57    11:01:42
>		48 processes:  1 running, 47 sleeping
>
>  --->>>	Memory: 15M Act 1192K Inact 3220K Wired 3812K Free 3% Swap
>  (after)
>
>		11:01AM  up  1:38, 5 users, load averages: 0.33, 0.59, 0.57
>
>
>  	Free space has lost about 10mbytes !

   There is a new category which top isn't reporting called "cached" memory.
It's the amount of memory for "cached" pages - usually filesystem data via the
merged VM/buffer cache. Don't worry, you haven't lost any memory - the system
is better at using most of "free" memory for file caching. An updated
"vmstat -s" will show you the real numbers.

-DG