Linux keeps all the stuff it has read in cache memory. However once it needs to, it can reclaim that memory (just discard the cache, it is nothing vital!) instantly and use it for other things.
It will use swap memory for things that don't get used. ie a app that does nothing or some bitmaps a app loaded into memory but never used. By swaping this to disk it free's more memory for cache, and allows it to be used for more efficientcy of the system.
As your 'free' output shows, your actually 'using' 124Mb of ram, and have about 400Mb still available.
Jeff Grossman wrote:
I never knew about the "free" command. But, I still don't understand how the system can start only using about 100M and now it is using almost all of the built in memory. And starting to use swap space. total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 513852 488336 25516 0 137064 227048 -/+ buffers/cache: 124224 389628 Swap: 650552 6708 643844 Thanks, Jeff Chris Chabot <chabotc@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:Ps, a better way to check 'actual' memory usage is with 'free', it will tell you what your usage is (so without counting buffers & cache). That number will still include some libraries that are kept in memory and inode cache's, but the number is a whole lot closer to the actual 'free memory' Rigoberto de la Cruz wrote:--- Jeff Grossman <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:I have noticed that the memory usage keeps going up. I am using this machine as a server so it never shutdowns, and reboots very rarely. When I do reboot it, it is using about 100M of memory out of 512M. This is according to TOP. Currently the machine has been up for 21 minutes and the memory usage is already at 147M. How can I figure out what is taking the memory?linux uses memory as cache. just don't worry about it unless you are having slowdowns. You don't have to worry about it because the memory is going to be freed when you need it. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com
