FC3 memory usage problem

[Satish Balay]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Satish Balay wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Nov 2004, Peter Arremann wrote:
> 
> > I just upgraded my laptop from FC1 to FC3 a few days ago and since then I'm 
> > seeing terrible memory usages. The laptop has 1GB plus 1GB swap 
> 
> I have similar config - laptop with 1G ram, 2G swap - and I notice the
> following (after logging out from X - and checking usage from VT-1)
> 
> ----
> # uname -srvp
> Linux 2.6.9-1.681_FC3 #1 Thu Nov 18 15:10:10 EST 2004 i686
> # uptime
>  21:12:45 up 2 days, 10:43,  6 users,  load average: 0.07, 0.42, 0.31
> # free
>              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:       1034568     813708     220860          0     246924     265168
> -/+ buffers/cache:     301616     732952
> Swap:      2096440          0    2096440
>
> # slabtop
>   OBJS ACTIVE  USE OBJ SIZE  SLABS OBJ/SLAB CACHE SIZE NAME
> 258815 252624  97%    0.68K  51763   5    207052K ext3_inode_cache
> 
> ----
> 
> (Don't remember the usage numbers for FC1) - perhaps this is where the
> memory usage is different between FC1/FC3?

Just want to add the following. I started a 'rpm --rebuild
kernel.src.rpm' (with an active gnome desktop & mozilla - and at the
end of the build - I have)

# free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       1034568     488668     545900          0      44296     272364
-/+ buffers/cache:     172008     862560
Swap:      2096440        176    2096264

# slabtop
  OBJS ACTIVE  USE OBJ SIZE  SLABS OBJ/SLAB CACHE SIZE NAME
  2660    874  32%    0.68K    532        5      2128K ext3_inode_cache
----

So the kernel frees ext3_inode_cache memory once a big (high i/o
usage?) job starts up. i.e the memory usage behavior looks ok to me.

Satish