From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 13 08:14:33 2005 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 3431016A46C for ; Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:14:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CBA5743D53 for ; Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:14:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from flame.pc (adsl-66-124-231-46.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [66.124.231.46]) (authenticated bits=0) by igloo.linux.gr (8.13.4/8.13.4/Debian-3) with ESMTP id jAD8EFYG016353; Sun, 13 Nov 2005 10:14:17 +0200 Received: by flame.pc (Postfix, from userid 1001) id C8FB211876; Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:14:02 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:14:02 -0800 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: gobbledegeek@gmail.com Message-ID: <20051113081402.GA18897@flame.pc> References: <463aea570511102258o5902b394s77f1caca3a17c0c3@mail.gmail.com> <20051111072901.GA1948@flame.pc> <463aea570511112317v3a00dbbfv98f65e3781450bd0@mail.gmail.com> <20051112100010.GA1945@flame.pc> <463aea570511122358l2ab2db59u3cebc04a42de8aa@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <463aea570511122358l2ab2db59u3cebc04a42de8aa@mail.gmail.com> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-3.592, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, AWL 0.81, BAYES_00 -2.60) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: output of top command question 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: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:14:33 -0000 On 2005-11-13 13:28, Gobbledegeek wrote: > Thanks. From the article I conclude that Active pages are: > Pages with page-used bit set > Inactive and cached refers to the different page queues. > But I could not correlate "wired" with anything. Any Tips? The virtual memory pages are not necessarilly associated with a page of physical memory at all times. They may be swapped out to disk if they are active but there is a memory shortage for a particular task. They may be inactive or cached and end up being freed, etc. The "wired" pages are attached to a physical memory page and are never swapped out to disk. In general, wired pages are those pages of the physical memory that the kernel needs to keep around at all times, because swapping them out is not possible for a variety of reasons (i.e. they are used asynchronously by a hardware device for DMA input/output, they contain paging information, and so on).