Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >On Sun, 2003-05-11 at 21:14, 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 >> >> > >To simplify what Roberto said, you're looking at the wrong line in the >output of "free." You should read the line marked "-/+ buffers/cache". >This shows that 124 MB of RAM is being used by your programs, and 389 MB >is available if the programs need it. The extra RAM being used for >cache will speed up your system overall and is NOT a problem -- it's a >big feature of the Linux kernel! > >Also, the small amount of swap being used is not anything to be worried >about. The only time you're "really" using swap is when that "free" >column in the -/+ buffers/cache line becomes zero (or very small). Thanks to everyone who answered my original question. It makes sense to me now. Jeff -- Jeff Grossman (jeff@xxxxxxxxxxx)
