Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 18:34:26 -0800
From: Chris Wedgwood <cw@f00f.org>
To: erek@necrotec.com
Cc: xfs-master@oss.sgi.com
Subject: Re: [Bug 290] XFS Kernel Memory Leak
Message-ID: <20050123023426.GA4185@taniwha.stupidest.org>
References: <200501222152.j0MLquTq031934@oss.sgi.com> <200501211833.j0LIXGYo006916@oss.sgi.com>
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On Fri, Jan 21, 2005 at 10:33:16AM -0800, bugzilla-daemon@oss.sgi.com wrote:

> i'm using Kernel 2.6.7 and 2.6.8.1.. and every night that updatedb
> would run..  i'd go from 450MB Free to 120MB Free and 568KB Swap
> Used.. (using the command free to view memory statistics)..

that's normal & expected

this is how linux and pretty much all moderns OSs work.  they cache
disk/file data with what would be otherwise unused memory

On Sat, Jan 22, 2005 at 01:52:56PM -0800, bugzilla-daemon@oss.sgi.com wrote:

> this puts some more insight into the topic.. but.. i ran "emerge
> sync" (uses rsync).. and the ram used up was _not_ able to be
> reclaimed...

if something needs the memory, it will be released from the
bugger/page-cache and used as required