From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Aug 25 18:25:33 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id SAA26614 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 18:25:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dyson.iquest.net (dyson.iquest.net [198.70.144.127]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id SAA26609 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 18:25:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from root@localhost) by dyson.iquest.net (8.8.6/8.8.5) id UAA01683; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 20:25:23 -0500 (EST) From: "John S. Dyson" Message-Id: <199708260125.UAA01683@dyson.iquest.net> Subject: Re: Slowly declining memory In-Reply-To: from "pcoyne@br-inc.com" at "Aug 25, 97 03:18:03 pm" To: pcoyne@br-inc.com Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 20:25:23 -0500 (EST) Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk pcoyne@br-inc.com said: > Given a relatively static machine (i.e. runs DNS only) why does > 'free' memory slowly but surely reduce (in top) day after day? > > e.g in a week, on a 64MB machine, go from 49MB to 25MB free memory in top > display. > > Where is it going on / is it a problem? > > Thanks, > The system is aggressive about caching the filedata and .text+.data, and if there isn't other, more important competing need, the system will just keep on remembering more and more data. It is not a problem, but simply using all of available memory if it can. -- John dyson@freebsd.org jdyson@nc.com