From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 6 18:02:37 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 687EB16A40F for ; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 18:02:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from pi.codefab.com (pi.codefab.com [199.103.21.227]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C75943D7E for ; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 18:02:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pi.codefab.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BCF45F8B; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:02:25 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at codefab.com Received: from pi.codefab.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (pi.codefab.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id JBkTvllRdxXW; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:02:24 -0500 (EST) Received: from [199.103.21.238] (pan.codefab.com [199.103.21.238]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pi.codefab.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 41B2F5D40; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:02:24 -0500 (EST) Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) In-Reply-To: <20061106172202.GA10341@dan.emsphone.com> References: <12394E9FCB7C8441BB238D7F67B402E469856C@exch2.verniernetworks.com> <20061106172202.GA10341@dan.emsphone.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <3984B6F3-870F-4412-A48C-27400147514F@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Charles Swiger Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:02:23 -0500 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Roselyn Lee Subject: Re: free memory keeps going down on 5.4-release X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:02:37 -0000 On Nov 6, 2006, at 12:22 PM, Dan Nelson wrote: > In the last episode (Nov 06), Roselyn Lee said: >> Does freebsd use memory for disk caching that is not accounted for in >> these stats? > > Yes, free memory is used as cache. As "Free" decreases, you will see > "Inact, "Cache" and "Buf" increase. Yep. What many people are looking for when they ask "how much memory is available to run new programs" is actually not just the "Free" memory, but something closer to "Free" + "Inactive". However, stuff that is in "Inactive" which has been modified will need to be written out to the swapfile before being evicted to make room for another program... -- -Chuck