Very Computer

by **SoohEp** » Sun, 21 Jan 2001 11:37:10

I have RH 7.0 and once a day it will run something called "updatedb"
and spawn other little processes such as "slocate".

Before "updatedb" runs I have plenty of memory left(about 50M free)
and gradually from TOP I can see updatedb eating up memory and
eventually the process takes up a max. of 30M !!

That's OK but the BIG problem is that when the process finishes
something is still taking up the 30M and won't release it until I
reboot !!

This is really an annoying and mysterious problem.

I suspect the updatedb and slocate....etc processes come from the
three processes anacron, atd, and crond running at boot time. Do
I really need them ? If I do is there anyway to tell updatedb
script to free up memory once it finishes doing what it's supposed to ?

thanks

Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/

by **Davi** » Sun, 21 Jan 2001 12:24:53

> I have RH 7.0 and once a day it will run something called "updatedb"
> and spawn other little processes such as "slocate".

> Before "updatedb" runs I have plenty of memory left(about 50M free)
> and gradually from TOP I can see updatedb eating up memory and
> eventually the process takes up a max. of 30M !!

> That's OK but the BIG problem is that when the process finishes
> something is still taking up the 30M and won't release it until I
> reboot !!

> This is really an annoying and mysterious problem.

> I suspect the updatedb and slocate....etc processes come from the
> three processes anacron, atd, and crond running at boot time. Do
> I really need them ? If I do is there anyway to tell updatedb
> script to free up memory once it finishes doing what it's supposed to ?

Why reboot?? If the system needs memory it will swap to free memory.
Linux uses the memory to cache recently used programs and/or files which
normal for linux and makes the system faster.

My 6.2 system has 640 MB of physical memory, with 256 MB swap and here
is what "free" shows.

free -to
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 646944 641328 5616 66556 459384 43540
Swap: 265032 5152 259880
Total: 911976 646480 265496

And believe me when I say it runs absolutely GREAT!!!

--
Confucius say: He who play in root, eventually kill tree.
Registered with the Linux Counter. http://counter.li.org
ID # 123538
Completed more W/U's than 99.004% of seti users. +/- 0.01%

by **David Efflan** » Sun, 21 Jan 2001 12:37:51

>I have RH 7.0 and once a day it will run something called "updatedb"
>and spawn other little processes such as "slocate".

>Before "updatedb" runs I have plenty of memory left(about 50M free)
>and gradually from TOP I can see updatedb eating up memory and
>eventually the process takes up a max. of 30M !!

>That's OK but the BIG problem is that when the process finishes
>something is still taking up the 30M and won't release it until I
>reboot !!

>This is really an annoying and mysterious problem.

>I suspect the updatedb and slocate....etc processes come from the
> three processes anacron, atd, and crond running at boot time. Do
>I really need them ? If I do is there anyway to tell updatedb
>script to free up memory once it finishes doing what it's supposed to ?

If you look at the output of the free command, it may show a bunch of
memory used, but that does not mean that it is not available. Linux uses
memeory as disk cache and memeory buffers and doesn't really release it
until it is needed for something else. That way programs and disk data
can reload quicker if nothing else has needed the RAM in the meantime.

For example my box has been up for 27 days and while it shows 89352 used
and 6596 free in the first line, the second line shows it really only

buffers/cache if needed. My laptop with 192 MB RAM and same Linux
typically shows much more being used in the first line, but that is
because it has more to play with for buffers/cache (it doesn't have any
swap).

--

http://www.autox.chicago.il.us/ http://www.berniesfloral.net/
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by **Michael Heimin** » Sun, 21 Jan 2001 17:49:13

> I have RH 7.0 and once a day it will run something called "updatedb"
> and spawn other little processes such as "slocate".

> Before "updatedb" runs I have plenty of memory left(about 50M free)
> and gradually from TOP I can see updatedb eating up memory and
> eventually the process takes up a max. of 30M !!

> That's OK but the BIG problem is that when the process finishes
> something is still taking up the 30M and won't release it until I
> reboot !!

> This is really an annoying and mysterious problem.

> I suspect the updatedb and slocate....etc processes come from the
> three processes anacron, atd, and crond running at boot time. Do
> I really need them ? If I do is there anyway to tell updatedb
> script to free up memory once it finishes doing what it's supposed to ?

> thanks

> Sent via Deja.com
> http://www.deja.com/

Hello,

it's as others pointed out, nothing to worry about, it's just that Linux
approach:

You've paid for all that RAM, so I will use it, I've even seen this on
machines with 1 GB of RAM,
Linux takes it all in a short time after reboot, but the biggest part is
taken for buffering/caching and will
be dynamically given to new apps started if they need it.

Run:

xosview +net +disk &

you get a small X app, with nice graphs, you can watch how the kernel
handles memory, it's not like OS
made in Redmond you have to reboot, because they can't free memory, I had
to live with it for some time
developing MS sw (NT 4.0), rebooting once a day was normal...:-(

Nice weekend

Michael Heiming

by **Allin Cottrel** » Thu, 25 Jan 2001 13:02:46

> I have RH 7.0 and once a day it will run something called "updatedb"
> and spawn other little processes such as "slocate".

> Before "updatedb" runs I have plenty of memory left(about 50M free)
> and gradually from TOP I can see updatedb eating up memory and
> eventually the process takes up a max. of 30M !!

> That's OK but the BIG problem is that when the process finishes
> something is still taking up the 30M and won't release it until I
> reboot !!

Think about it. You really want most of your computer's memory
to sit there, empty, rather than retaining an image of the code
required for recently-run processes? Try the experiment of rebooting,
then starting netscape (record the time it takes to get going) then
stopping netscape, then starting it again (how long does it take to
get going?). And think.

--
Allin Cottrell
Department of Economics
Wake Forest University, NC

Very Computer

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up

updatedb eating up RAM and doesn't free up