From owner-freebsd-doc Wed May 15 11:30:29 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@hub.freebsd.org Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.21]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D8FBC37B409 for ; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:30:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g4FIU1V80875; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:30:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gnats) Received: from nwww.freebsd.org (www.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.117]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E672437B404 for ; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:25:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from www.freebsd.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nwww.freebsd.org (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id g4FIPEhG089271 for ; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:25:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from nobody@www.freebsd.org) Received: (from nobody@localhost) by www.freebsd.org (8.12.2/8.12.2/Submit) id g4FIPEcS089270; Wed, 15 May 2002 11:25:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <200205151825.g4FIPEcS089270@www.freebsd.org> Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 11:25:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Norbert Papke To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0 Subject: docs/38118: New FAQ entry for amount of free memory Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >Number: 38118 >Category: docs >Synopsis: New FAQ entry for amount of free memory >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-doc >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: wish >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Wed May 15 11:30:01 PDT 2002 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Norbert Papke >Release: 4.6-PRERELEASE >Organization: Proven Path >Environment: FreeBSD proven.2y.net 4.6-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 4.6-PRERELEASE #11: Tue May 14 16:58:29 PDT 2002 npapke@proven.2y.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/NGP i386 >Description: In a recent discussion on comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc John S. Dyson provided the following excellent description of free memory caclulation. It should be added to the FAQ, possibly in "Chapter 16 - Misc Questions". I have checked with John and he does not object to his answers being used in this manner. Q: How much free memory is available? A: There are a couple of kinds of 'free memory'. One kind is the amount of memory immediately available without paging anything else out. That is approx the size of cache queue + size of free queue (with a derating factor, depending upon system tuning.) Another kind of 'free memory ' is the total amount of VM space. That can be complex, but is dependent upon the amount of swap space and memory. Other kinds of 'free memory' descriptions are also possible, but it is relatively useless to define these, but rather it i s important to make sure that the paging rate is kept low, and to avoid running out of swap space. >How-To-Repeat: n/a >Fix: >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message