On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, John Winters wrote:
> >I would like to find out how if I can "restart" the swap space...I
> >think there's deadwood in there. But I don't know whether there's a
> >utility to tell me whether any swap space currently is being wasted.
> >Any ideas?
>
> Define "wasted". If you think there's a bug in the Linux paging code
> which causes it to forget about part of the swap space then report it
> (preferably with some form of supporting evidence). Otherwise the
> swap space is being used to store bits of running programs which are
> not currently required. This isn't waste - it's freeing up your RAM
> for better purposes. Why would you want to force stuff to be moved
> back into RAM if it doesn't need to be?
I wouldn't think an error, if there is any, would have to be in the
paging code. Couldn't there be a program, or a set of programs, that
don't terminate as they should? Seems like there could be many other
scenarios.
Anyway, before I restart X with a handful of applications and Xterms,
I had 68% swap used. After I restarted X with the same applications
used, I had 20% swap used. If the paging code were so perfect, or if
the there were no other explanations or inefficiencies, what accounts
for the nearly 26MB of swap that are suddenly no longer in use?
--
David S. Jackson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.dsj.net>
"Linux: Choice of a GNU Generation!"
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