From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Nov 3 13:24:58 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id NAA26434 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 13:24:58 -0800 (PST) Received: from delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu (delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu [128.135.5.5]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id NAA26381 for ; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 13:24:31 -0800 (PST) Received: from bio-5.bsd.uchicago.edu (bio-5.bsd.uchicago.edu [128.135.75.14]) by delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu (8.7.6/8.7.3/BSD-4.0) with SMTP id PAA10574 for ; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:20:17 -0600 (CST) Received: by bio-5.bsd.uchicago.edu (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA06467; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:20:11 +0600 Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:20:11 +0600 Message-Id: <9611032120.AA06467@bio-5.bsd.uchicago.edu> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: vmstat output: does avm+fre=total? From: Tim Pierce Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I'm a little puzzled by the output of vmstat. I have 8MB of core and 16MB swap, so by my reckoning I have 24000 pages of virtual memory at my disposal. (Right? Wrong?) Running vmstat on a mostly idle system on a recent day gave me avm counts ranging from 20,000 to 4,000, with the fre list staying relatively constant at 700-800. When the system is heavily loaded, the avm count has gotten as high as 30,000. What's the deal? Shouldn't avm+fre approximately equal the total amount of VM on the system? Neither the man page nor the Nemeth book has helped shed much light on this. I'd appreciate any pointers. Thanks, T.