swapping and cache usage

Oskar Liljeblad (osk@hem.passagen.se)
Thu, 23 Sep 1999 13:43:37 +0200

Why does Linux 2.2(.12) swap memory for "running" programs to disk, in
favor of disk cache? (The programs were X apps, in sleep state, but
hadn't been so for more than a few seconds.)

What happens is that when you move the X mouse cursor again, there's a
~ .5s delay when kernel reloads disk-swap memory. Very annoying,
especially since there's only 5 MB of program memory, and the other
123 MB is used for cached disk data (128 MB total on this system).

Output from `free' during the copying:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 128112 126432 1680 9144 2620 115708
-/+ buffers/cache: 8104 120008
Swap: 80288 12192 68096

If I should provide more information, please send email to the address
below.

Oskar Liljeblad (osk@hem.passagen.se)

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/