From owner-freebsd-isp Wed Sep 18 4:51: 5 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A113837B407 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 04:51:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from usenet.otenet.gr (usenet.otenet.gr [195.170.0.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17BD843E88 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 04:50:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from mailsrv.otenet.gr (mailsrv.otenet.gr [195.170.0.5]) by usenet.otenet.gr (8.12.4/8.12.4) with ESMTP id g8IBog8J027309 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:50:42 +0300 (EEST) Received: from hades.hell.gr (patr530-a202.otenet.gr [212.205.215.202]) by mailsrv.otenet.gr (8.12.4/8.12.4) with ESMTP id g8IBmpXZ002615; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:49:00 +0300 (EEST) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by hades.hell.gr (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g8I9HS431112; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 12:17:28 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 12:17:27 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: pzw@aabc.dk Cc: isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Inactive memory in FreeBSD Message-ID: <20020918091727.GB20911@hades.hell.gr> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-PGP-Fingerprint: C1EB 0653 DB8B A557 3829 00F9 D60F 941A 3186 03B6 Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On 2002-09-18 09:20, pzw@aabc.dk wrote: > When I FTP to the server or compile stuff, the amount of Inactive memory > goes up, which I guess is because it is used for disk cache. > > However, when I stop compiling/FTP, it don't release the memory, it stays > inactive, and then when you compile or use FTP again, the server starts > using swap space, which IMHO can't be very efficient, and I have to reboot > the server in order to release the memory. I have 256MB in the server, and > it only uses around 40MB initially, so there shouldn't be any problem, I > don't run X or anything fancy on it either. There is a nice article about the design of the VM system in FreeBSD over at www.FreeBSD.org. This will probably explain some more details of the way things are done. Find it at: http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/vm-design/ I am no virtual-memory guru myself and I can't explain in detail if and why things work as you describe them, but I think you might find this article of interest. - Giorgos To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message