Subject: Re: 'free' and 'top' show the wrong amount of RAM
From: Jamie Orchard-Hays (jamie@dang.com)
Date: Thu Mar 02 2000 - 23:01:20 MST
good question!
>I just remembered something...another wrench into the works... running RHL
>6.1 on a PC with 64 MB of RAM, free showed ‰62 MB free (so the kernel
>[2.2.12-20] was using ‰2 MB of RAM)..running YDL 1.1 on my G3 with 128 MB of
>RAM, free shows ‰ 124 MB free, so the kernel [2.2.6] is using ‰4 MB of RAM..
>
>is it just coincidence that for every 64 MB of RAM the kernel uses 2 MB?
>
>Bob
>---------------------------------------
>"The knack to flying is learning how to
>throw yourself at the ground and miss."
>
> >From "Life the Universe and Everything"
>by Douglas Adams
>
>Robert Fout
>MacOS Guru and MkLinux/Yellowdog Linux User
>rfout@damien.edu
>http://osx.damien.edu/rfout/
>ICQ# 48433406
>
> > From: Jim Cole <greyleaf@yggdrasill.net>
> > Reply-To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> > Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 22:20:45 -0700 (MST)
> > To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> > Subject: Re: 'free' and 'top' show the wrong amount of RAM
> >
> > Jason P. Stanford's bits of Fri, 3 Mar 2000 translated to:
> >
> >> Disk : 1,000 * 1024 bytes = 1,024,000 bytes =~ 1MB
> >> Memory : 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes =~ 1MB RAM
> >>
> >> One megabyte of disk storage is comprised of 1,000 units of 1,024 bytes,
> >> whereas one megabyte of memory (RAM) is comprised of 2^20 bytes.
> >
> > I would have to disagree. 1000 units of 1024 bytes is just 1000 1KB blocks,
> > not 1 MB. A MB is always 1024^2 bytes. If you check the man pages for du
> > and df, they at least agree with me ;) Both equate the -m (--megabytes)
> > option with --blocksize=1048576.
> >
> > I am 99.9% certain that *missing memory* issue that started all of this
> > is due to the fact that free and top on a monolithic Linux kernel report
> > the remaining memory available for daemons, user programs, etc. after
> > the kernel has been loaded up.
> >
> >
> > Jim
> >
Jamie Orchard-Hays
jamie@dang.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Apr 02 2000 - 21:09:29 MDT