Memory staying in cached status -- Possible Memory Leak

[Dave Mitchell]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 10:31:23AM -0400, Kaplan, Andrew H. wrote:
> I am running Fedora Core 5 that was hardened by Bastille Linux on a system with
> 1.5 GB of RAM. The system functions as an e-mail server running Sendmail along
> with MailScanner, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV. 
> 
> I have noticed over time, via the free -m command, that the amount of cached RAM
> is going up. This results in the amount of free memory going down to where there
> is almost nothing left.

That's normal behaviour. The OS uses unused RAM to cache disk access. When it
needs to use the RAM for something "proper", it just reclaims it.

As long as the -/+ buffers/cache line shows lots free, you're ok.

> The end result has been the system to periodically
> hanging, which forces me to reboot the server. 

Your fault most likely lies elsewhere.

-- 
A major Starfleet emergency breaks out near the Enterprise, but
fortunately some other ships in the area are able to deal with it to
everyone's satisfaction.
    -- Things That Never Happen in "Star Trek" #13