Dhananjay Makwana wrote:
> We have a FC1 system running kernel 2.4.22-1.2115.nptl and kde3
> configured as a backup server. The machine has 384MB ram.
>
> We have been observing the total memory usage of the system. If we let
> it run without reboot for days then we see the memory usage (as shown by
> top) keeps increasing steadily. At the end of the week, it barely has
> 8MB of "free" memory, rest all is used up. But "top" does not show who
> is using the rest of 376MB. The total of top 20 program's memory usage
> does not come anywhere close to 376MB.
> If we reboot the machine then memory usage drops to "acceptable" values
> of around 150MB.
This is known, expected, and generally a Good Thing.
What you call "free" memory is more accurately termed "wasted". It's not
doing anything for anyone.
So, if possible, it's put to work, earning its keep, caching the hard
drive. When your system needs something from the hard drive, chances are
it will be in the *much* faster cache (at least 100,000 times faster).
It can very easily be reclaimed for other duties if needed.
HTH,
James.
--
E-mail address: james@ | "If you took all the students that fell asleep in
westexe.demon.co.uk | class and laid them end to end, they'd be a lot
| more comfortable."
