Lionel, It is true that Linux (and most Unix) follow a "full" memory model. Which means all memory is used for either user programs/libraries or disk cache. But I -think- the problem here is that X also uses video memory. And this extra memory is often reported alongside regular memory, especially in programs such as top: Virtual Resource Share X: 77852 1168 1000 xfs-xtt: 15500 160 160 prime-net: 10580 10240 10240 The first column is -all- memory, main or otherwise. The second is total real (i.e. main) memory. The last is memory used from the executable residing in memory; that is both a copy of the executable and also its libraries. At least, these interpetations are the best I can manage -- but I'm sure I'm wrong: The last example was prime-net, which is small code but allocates alot to solve a long math problem. So share should not be 10240, but closer to 240. But xfs-xtt at least makes sense since it should use mostly video memory to store it's font's. If you are wondering why my X is so small it is because I am only running one xterm and a minimal window manager. If, for example I load mozilla, my memory jumps up to Res:3096. One last note, I -am- certain about this: Virt >= Res >= Share and that most of the time Virt ~= Res ~= Share, that is they are, for the most of time, very close. Hope that helps, Gryn On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 11:51:40PM -0800, Lionel Lecoq wrote: > See the archives of this list:It seems that linux resp. X uses ALL memory available in order to > optimise resource utilisation (the idea being that available RAM should not remain unused) > At least this is what I have understood, anyone knowing better correct me... > Lionel _______________________________________________ Newbie@XFree86.Org *** To unsubscribe , or change message options, see: http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/newbie
