Derek Martin wrote:
>
> Yesterday, James R. Van Zandt gleaned this insight:
>
> > vanzandt:~$ cat /proc/meminfo
> > total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
> > Mem: 64524288 41836544 22687744 25706496 9859072 15622144
> > Swap: 106885120 0 106885120
> > MemTotal: 63012 kB
> > MemFree: 22156 kB
> > MemShared: 25104 kB
> > Buffers: 9628 kB
> > Cached: 15256 kB
> > SwapTotal: 104380 kB
> > SwapFree: 104380 kB
> > vanzandt:~$ calc 22687744+41836544
> > 64524288
> > vanzandt:~$ calc 25706496+9859072+15622144
> > 51187712
> > vanzandt:~$ calc 25706496+9859072
> > 35565568
> >
> > I understand the first three entries, I think. (I only just booted
> > this machine, so it has not buffered much from the disk, and has not
> > swapped anything out.) I assume the 25M of "shared" includes all the
> > shared libraries I'm using. I also assume that "buffers" have copies
> > of data recently read from and/or written to the disk. However,
> > I don't know what "cached" refers to. Apparently the last three
> > categories are not distinct, because they add up to more than "used".
> > Is anyone willing to fill me in?
>
> I just had a discussion about that very topic with one of our kernel
> weenies last week. You're almost perfect, if I understood him
> correctly... Shared refers to the number of bytes being used by more than
> one process (not necessarily shared libraries, can also be text pages of a
> program with multiple instances). Buffers refer to I/O buffers (any
> buffered I/O), while cached refers specifically to disk buffer cache.
> The numbers do not add up to 100%, and will overlap.
>
> --
And to add in, since I wasn't sure if your "last three" included swap,
swap is the amount of disk space you've set aside for virtual memory.
On the run above, none of the virtual memory (an additional 104380 kB)
is being used (SwapTotal and SwapFree arethe same).
--
jeff smith
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