From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 6 20:35:16 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B71C016A4F4 for ; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 20:35:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (gizmo.acns.msu.edu [35.8.1.43]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 58A704421E for ; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 20:27:42 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: from gizmo.acns.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id kA6KPNkO064301; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 15:25:23 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jerrymc@gizmo.acns.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by gizmo.acns.msu.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) id kA6KPIlt064300; Mon, 6 Nov 2006 15:25:18 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jerrymc) Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 15:25:18 -0500 From: Jerry McAllister To: Roselyn Lee Message-ID: <20061106202518.GB64251@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <12394E9FCB7C8441BB238D7F67B402E469856C@exch2.verniernetworks.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <12394E9FCB7C8441BB238D7F67B402E469856C@exch2.verniernetworks.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: free memory keeps going down on 5.4-release X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2006 20:35:16 -0000 On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 09:08:04AM -0800, Roselyn Lee wrote: > > Hi, > > We're running freebsd 5-4 release and notice that an idle system's free > memroy keeps decreasing. The system has 1 GB memory and the free mem > starts at ~700M and goes down steadily until it hits 2M and stays there. > After that bringing up more apps on the system doesn't seem to make the > free memory any smaller. I checked top and vmstat -m, vmstat -z and > can't see where all that memory is going. Does freebsd use memory for > disk caching that is not accounted for in these stats? I believe this is normal. There have been many similar posts and explanatory replies about this sort of thing. There may even be a FAQ on it (but I haven't checked). It is an artifact of how memory allocation works and improved efficiency of memory algoritms. So, do a little archive and FAQ searching. There may also be articles in online publications such as Onlamp or others. ////jerry > > Thanks in advance for any help. > > Roselyn > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >