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Date:      Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:12:02 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Bleichert <syborg@stny.rr.com>
To:        Matt Winslow <matt@mattwinslow.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Question about memory usage
Message-ID:  <Pine.LNX.4.44.0211191107530.8007-100000@janeway.vonbek.dhs.org>
In-Reply-To: <001801c28fe6$91194e40$fb0e640a@riteaid.com>

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On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Matt Winslow wrote:

> Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:13:15 -0500
> From: Matt Winslow <matt@mattwinslow.com>
> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> Subject: Question about memory usage
> 
> I'm running FreeBSD 4.5, on a P-133 system.  I just upgraded my RAM
> yesterday from 80MB to 256MB, because it always used to sit at 93-94% used
> when I had 80.  Well now that I installed more, it's sitting at 93% used
> again.  Being newer to BSD, is there a way I can check what is using
> memory...or does it just do that automatically?
> 
> Thanks for the help!
> 
> Matt Winslow
> matt@mattwinslow.com
> 

BSD will use whatever memory you give it. Especially if you do a large 
compile or something of that nature. Going from 80 MB to 256 MB isn't that 
big of a step, esp. if it's a desktop system. Going from 256 MB to say 1.5 
GB you should see your percentages drop somewhat. That is, for a desktop 
system.

Remember that the memory usage statistics also contain shared memory and 
memory that is cached application data, which may be cleared and reused 
if a new application needs it.

Also, in a server system, if you had 1 GB of memory and only showed 500 MB 
used, you'd have 500 MB of wasted memory to pull out and put in another 
box. 93% sounds like a good usage to me :)

#  John Bleichert 
#  http://vonbek.dhs.org/latest.jpg


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