At 11:13 PM 12/29/99 -0300, Jeremias Galletti wrote [in part]:
>I need help figuring out what �free� reports. Here�s what I got after the
>Wine configure script finished, and before running the Wine make:
>
> total used free shared buffers cached
>Mem: 79296 77264 2032 6572 32476
>37160
>-/+ buffers/cache: 7628 71668
>Swap: 128988 24 128964
>
>But where there only 2032kb of free memory when there weren�t
>any major programs running? What do �buffers� and �shared� mean?
>Whatever they were, they were eating almost all of my RAM?
When Linux finishes running a program, it leaves it in memory against the
possibility that someone will run it again before it needs that memory for
something else. Same with data files. I'm not clear on which of this is
"shared", which "buffered", but the memory in those two areas is available
for use by other programs if needed. That's why "free" reports the second
line (-/+ buffers/cache) -- because that tells you how much memory is really
available.
One consequence of this is that any host that has a long uptime will show
very little "free" memory (by the standard of the first line), because
caching and buffering cumulates. Unfortunately, these are the numbers
reported by "top", making that part of its output almost useless.
This caching/buffering business is a real performance plus for Linux, BTW.
Try running something that involves searching a database (a "locate" will
serve if you use that database; a "find" on a mounted CD is also a handy
indicator). DO it once and notice how long it takes. Then do the same thing
again, immediately, and see how much faster it is.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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