Re: free output still a bit fsck'ed...

Greg Alexander (galexand@sietch.bloomington.in.us)
Thu, 13 Nov 1997 15:49:39 -0500 (EST)

this is a bug in procps...at least in debian's procps 1.12.2 package. It
should have -/+ buffers subtract the buffers number from the first and add
to the second, but instead of subtracts from both. so it's really -/-
buffers, meaning the second number's completely meaningless. :) I upgraded
to the most recent procps and problem's gone.

On Thu, 13 Nov 1997, Matthew Kirkwood wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've noticed this a few times before -- the +/- buffers info
> given by free goes negative sometimes.
>
> This from 2.1.63 while compiling kernels over NFS from localhost:
>
> pc29:~$ free
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 62980 54244 8736 11860 4140
> -/+ buffers: 50104 4596
> Swap: 68508 4 68504 40484
> pc29:~$ free
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 62980 59248 3732 14084 4140
> -/+ buffers: 55108 4193896
> Swap: 68508 4 68504 40656
> pc29:~$ free
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 62980 58752 4228 14336 4204
> -/+ buffers: 54548 24
> Swap: 68508 4 68504 41060
> pc29:~$ free
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 62980 58424 4556 14060 4204
> -/+ buffers: 54220 352
> Swap: 68508 4 68504 41068
>
> Are these number supposed to be approximate, or is there a
> bug/race/whatever somewhere?
>
> Matthew.
>
>
>
>

Greg Alexander - also <gralexan@indiana.edu> - http://sietch.home.ml.org/
----
Something not being where it should be does not necessitate it being where
it doesn't belong.
-- Really freakin obvious