Re: where did my memory go??

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Sat, 27 Dec 1997 15:23:15 +0000 (GMT)

> Did I read that post right? Linux is *SUPPOSED* to consume all memory
> and then release it as needed? That sounds odd to me.

Thats because you are used to stupid OS's rather than a sensible unified
VM layer. Free memory is waste memory, instead linux leaves things lying
around in memory in case they are needed again. If not then they get thrown
out when the space is needed.

Why go to the trouble of removing things that might be needed ?

Alan