Re: [TCLUG:320] mem vs. swap

[Michael Hicks <hick0088@tc.umn.edu>]

> While fiddling around on my linux box I herd a lot of hard drive access
> so I check the mem vs swap numbers.  I found that my mem was 12% full
> (I've got 96 megs in now), and the swap was at 38%.  Usually I'm at
> about mem of 40 and Swap near zero.  What could cause such an
> imbalance.  Even now with the system having sat idle for about 10 mins
> I'm at mem 31% and swap 21%.  I'm I funadmentally misunderstanding the
> mem/swap thing?  Thanks.

Well, I don't know a whole lot about this myself, but I have to ask if
you had just closed out of a big program (Like X or Netscape)?  In my
experience, a big program using a lot of memory will end up clearing out
a lot of RAM and swap when it shuts down, but the memory other apps were
using didn't get pushed back into RAM after getting shoved onto the swap
by the big program..  (I especially get this after the final linking of
Mozilla -- uses all of my RAM (32), plus about 50% of my swap (from 64))

But, I've heard that there are some interesting new swap optimizations
that are coming in 2.0.34 (if it ever comes out..)  10% increase in
speed, I think I heard..

The whole swap issue kind of confuses me a bit..  I remember running
OS/2, waiting for a sound player DLL or something to come back from the
swap whenever I opened or closed a window.  The stupid sounds would
usually play anywhere from 2-15 seconds after I had opened the window.. 
Not exactly good as far as presentation goes..  ("Here we have a
next-generation Operating System (swapping, swapping, swapping) running
several different applications (swapping, swapping, swapping) ... If any
of them will ever come up....")

'Course, maybe I should just get a SCSI controller and HD.  Is swapping
much smoother on a SCSI-based system?

Mike Hicks