FS Buff cache taking all the memory

[mmontegut@att.net]

Hello,

I had a question about the memory access (specifically 
the buffer cache) behavior of the files systems on 
REDHAT 7.1 with the 2.4.2 kernal .

uname -a reports:

Linux 2.4.2-SGI_XFS_1.0smp #1 SMP Fri Apr 27 19:07:34 
CDT 2001 i686 unknown


The problem is that LINUX appears to be gradually use up 
all the memory as you open and access more and more 
files. We are just reading the files at this point. 
Eventually the system (we record this with top) runs so 
low on memory that it become unstable. The file system 
does not appear to relinquish the memory in time to keep 
applications that need memory stable.

Is there some sort of tuning parameters for XFS or ext2 
that would help this? 

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Michael