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RuralHunter
February 17th, 2013, 10:45 AM
I'm on ubuntu 12.10 64bit desktop with all latest updates installed. This happens 2 times today: swap usage increased very quickly in around 10 mins and finally OOM killer killed nautilus and compiz. I tried to close all memory consuming apps such as firefox and some java applications during the swap usage increasing but it didn't help. everything backed to normal after nautilus and compiz were killed and restarted.

I have 10G mem and swap. Here is some monitoring stats after I closed all mem consuming apps:

$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 10153356 10014728 138628 0 59044 8340668
-/+ buffers/cache: 1615016 8538340
Swap: 10394620 5513340 4881280


The used buffers in above command is only between 2-3G even when all those mem consuming apps running.
vmstat during swap usage increasing(after above free command) and OOM killer involved:

$ vmstat 3
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
1 0 6195628 146832 57348 8266692 0 163 53 177 96 35 3 1 94 2
0 0 6195628 146060 57364 8267000 0 0 0 24 312 1271 2 0 97 0
0 0 6195628 146708 57364 8266768 0 0 0 0 312 1295 2 0 98 0
1 0 6195280 130380 57324 8352768 203 91 203 115 346 1492 2 1 96 1
0 2 6391060 108504 56628 8341460 203 65484 203 65484 578 1850 2 5 72 22
0 0 6477120 148904 56628 8273208 0 28687 0 28729 460 1584 2 3 78 18
2 0 6477120 147048 56644 8274984 0 0 0 21 311 1278 2 0 97 1
0 0 6477120 145512 56644 8276800 0 0 0 0 288 1099 2 0 98 0
0 0 6477120 149840 56668 8272972 0 0 0 27 321 1303 2 1 97 1
0 0 6477120 148536 56668 8274696 0 0 0 0 302 1207 2 0 98 0
0 3 6637500 154308 56188 8270224 181 53605 181 53651 559 1806 1 5 56 38
1 5 6794972 100764 55020 8358472 5611 60509 5739 60553 1060 6308 8 8 52 32
0 7 7031576 108548 53160 8341936 0 78868 0 78868 803 3543 4 8 19 68
0 0 7165184 145832 53040 8294944 0 44536 0 44572 590 2165 3 4 48 45
0 0 7165184 142092 53056 8317988 0 0 0 25 318 1369 2 1 97 1
0 0 7165184 140480 53080 8319436 0 0 0 32 299 1145 2 0 97 1
1 0 7165184 130632 53080 8329084 0 0 0 0 314 1451 2 1 97 0
0 0 7165184 214616 53108 8330756 0 0 11 52 330 1583 2 1 96 1
6 1 7373984 114896 52860 8407668 0 69600 0 69600 775 4490 6 8 68 18
0 4 7571660 99568 52344 8454592 0 65893 0 65936 912 3216 4 7 39 50
1 0 7721532 144212 52108 8371276 0 49956 0 49976 554 1921 2 5 52 42
0 0 7721532 142372 52140 8372900 0 0 0 48 280 1200 2 0 97 1
0 2 7878884 146332 52072 8360132 0 52451 0 52465 634 2243 3 5 70 22
3 0 7881240 149948 52096 8364120 0 785 0 813 329 1186 2 0 83 15
0 0 7881240 148404 52096 8365912 0 0 0 0 290 1163 2 0 97 0
0 1 7971040 124144 52072 8378652 0 29933 0 29963 430 1776 2 3 94 1
0 3 8108848 100328 51948 8454660 203 46157 203 46171 631 2419 3 5 67 25
0 2 8288572 148256 51856 8374564 0 59911 395 59931 565 1630 3 5 40 51
3 3 8387692 125216 52600 8461100 0 37153 1097 37340 665 2817 9 5 49 36
1 0 8494804 159912 52792 8413428 0 35737 1221 36033 618 1832 5 4 41 50
0 0 8494332 287000 52808 8535316 0 0 608 40 409 1863 3 1 92 3
0 1 8589812 134724 52592 8644832 0 31827 0 31831 401 1553 5 4 90 2
0 0 8589812 135980 52608 8645044 0 0 0 20 306 909 2 1 91 7
0 0 8589812 133860 52628 8646488 0 0 8 25 263 990 2 0 97 1
0 0 8589812 145872 52540 8674968 0 0 33 0 349 14584 4 3 94 0
1 0 8589812 149716 52556 8670804 0 0 0 37 216 928 1 1 97 1
0 0 8589812 149716 52556 8670804 0 0 0 0 164 642 1 1 98 0
0 0 8589812 149716 52580 8670792 0 0 0 28 196 879 1 1 97 1
0 0 8589812 150136 52612 8670308 0 0 0 73 264 1237 3 1 95 1
0 0 8589812 151452 52612 8668960 0 0 0 0 271 1235 2 2 96 0
0 2 8750484 147564 52152 8633480 168 53756 168 54943 468 1199 1 5 50 43
0 3 8959004 134548 50452 8649604 0 69513 99 69539 739 2807 5 10 48 37
1 1 9044340 152364 50440 8642244 0 28445 57 28489 374 906 1 5 54 40
0 4 9107872 114360 50660 8712148 0 21177 600 21183 486 2959 6 4 71 18
4 4 9270288 114520 49152 8722336 0 54181 28 54221 816 2667 7 9 37 47
0 5 9486360 127692 48576 8661256 0 71981 17 72000 699 15501 4 10 31 55
1 1 9592240 127836 48544 8677404 0 35292 244 35317 591 1983 6 5 56 33
0 0 9641408 175712 48504 8634276 0 16391 556 16429 313 764 1 3 75 21
0 0 9641408 167924 48504 8642168 0 0 0 0 324 1555 6 1 93 0
0 0 9732140 133196 48464 8698588 181 30384 181 30408 505 1469 6 5 88 1
0 0 9857272 146880 48424 8671884 0 41711 0 41771 521 1540 4 6 71 19
0 0 9857272 138820 48424 8680148 0 0 0 0 148 552 1 1 98 0
0 0 9857272 138200 48440 8680676 0 0 0 24 166 510 1 1 98 1
0 3 10028960 130260 47076 8689800 0 57229 0 57252 639 2343 8 8 62 23
0 0 10069828 149512 47100 8722420 0 13623 0 13663 317 874 1 3 62 34
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
1 0 10069828 141700 47116 8730648 0 0 0 24 202 683 1 2 97 0
0 0 10069828 141700 47116 8730672 0 0 0 0 238 12991 2 4 94 0
1 0 10201296 120612 47104 8694096 0 43821 0 43849 429 1406 1 6 82 10
0 3 10371380 100428 46648 8733276 0 56696 0 56704 556 2050 3 8 76 13
0 3 10394620 111740 1684 8807168 0 7747 2389 7837 2177 2661 3 6 34 56
0 2 10394620 121080 232 8800532 0 16 5943 41 492 1439 1 2 58 38
0 1 10394620 122844 616 8811820 0 0 4951 0 358 929 1 1 52 46
0 1 10394620 123712 624 8810328 0 0 157 35 224 885 1 1 73 25
0 1 10394620 125944 620 8808488 0 0 69 27 240 976 1 2 73 24
0 1 10394620 127680 620 8806212 0 0 43 0 208 795 1 1 73 24
0 1 10394620 129044 420 8805792 0 0 344 28 212 771 1 2 73 25
0 1 10394620 130408 420 8803748 0 0 0 0 182 606 1 1 74 25
0 1 10394620 131524 444 8802412 0 0 48 29 219 12184 1 3 72 23
0 1 10394620 133508 468 8800920 0 0 0 28 194 687 1 1 73 25
0 1 10394620 132764 468 8801676 0 0 776 4 274 1079 1 2 72 26
0 1 10394620 134872 492 8800084 0 0 0 29 198 681 1 2 73 25
0 1 10394620 137228 336 8797676 0 0 0 17 183 613 1 2 74 24
0 1 10394620 138220 352 8796164 0 0 0 24 196 664 1 2 73 24
0 1 10394620 138096 280 8796880 0 0 647 28 222 730 1 2 73 25
2 6 10394620 117512 220 8820076 0 0 7204 12 409 1053 1 2 64 33
0 9 10394620 116536 216 8820680 0 0 11164 15 395 535 0 0 62 37
1 7 10394620 117280 212 8820100 0 0 10485 36 283 482 0 0 57 43
0 9 10394620 118644 220 8818836 0 0 10253 35 274 550 0 0 60 39
0 6 10394620 116412 216 8821152 0 0 10679 15 363 494 0 0 62 38
0 5 10394620 119636 224 8817560 0 0 9813 25 299 537 0 0 60 40
0 5 10394620 114040 380 8822712 0 0 7719 27 265 840 1 1 59 39
0 9 10394620 117396 212 8820916 0 0 7879 39 293 661 0 0 57 42
0 8 10394620 116900 208 8821128 0 0 10004 7 264 463 0 0 65 35
0 7 10394620 116404 216 8821836 0 0 9519 32 307 474 0 0 59 40
0 7 10394620 117272 216 8820760 0 0 9124 15 305 569 0 0 59 40
0 7 10394620 124092 224 8814280 0 0 6595 17 266 531 0 0 61 39
0 4 10394620 104036 216 8834084 0 0 6376 28 356 864 1 1 59 39
0 5 10394620 105864 212 8831884 0 0 9900 16 281 481 0 0 64 35
0 7 10394620 117132 220 8821440 0 0 8477 31 232 540 0 0 63 37
0 5 10394620 109940 212 8829108 0 0 7676 21 378 770 0 1 62 36
0 6 10394620 107296 216 8833820 0 0 8353 45 263 746 0 1 67 32
0 5 10394620 104896 208 8835884 0 0 9529 23 297 648 0 0 72 28
0 4 10394620 122544 224 8816776 0 0 7757 31 162 450 0 0 71 28
0 6 10394620 114580 212 8825800 0 0 8595 4 215 722 0 1 65 34
0 5 10394620 111592 208 8829508 0 0 7597 40 167 552 0 0 68 32
1 10 10394620 123832 216 8815756 0 0 8868 21 245 947 0 2 68 31
1 5 10394620 117324 216 8823244 0 0 8352 17 173 574 0 1 61 38
0 7 10394620 124224 208 8815804 0 0 8501 39 191 719 0 1 66 33
0 8 10394620 114160 204 8826488 0 0 9309 7 246 520 0 0 66 34
0 3 10394620 101048 228 8840052 0 0 8497 28 328 695 0 1 56 43
0 6 10394620 99696 228 8841460 0 0 8991 33 393 991 0 1 68 31
0 6 10394620 99536 212 8841756 0 0 9857 17 380 1206 0 0 72 28
0 10 10394620 99356 216 8841456 0 0 9607 31 375 1417 0 1 68 32
0 7 10394620 99548 212 8841712 0 0 7337 45 380 1262 0 0 65 35
0 7 10394620 99816 212 8841496 0 0 6148 57 292 1039 0 1 69 31
2 11 10394620 111088 212 8829388 0 0 6571 5 269 921 0 1 66 33
0 6 10394620 107484 228 8833828 0 0 4564 23 230 1088 0 1 59 40
0 17 10394620 113880 208 8826752 0 0 6055 25 195 640 0 0 61 39
0 10 10394620 107288 212 8833028 0 0 5965 19 214 670 0 0 44 56
0 7 10394620 107564 224 8833568 0 0 5613 29 195 657 0 0 52 47
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
1 11 10394620 109716 232 8829660 0 0 6057 15 200 732 0 0 63 37
0 9 10394620 107712 236 8833652 0 0 6869 24 198 1194 0 0 62 37
0 12 10394620 112384 204 8828152 0 0 7356 47 316 1315 1 1 60 38
0 12 10394620 113680 204 8826688 0 0 7543 3 231 679 0 0 67 33
0 7 10394620 99904 220 8840924 0 0 5964 32 191 583 0 0 62 38
0 9 10394620 112292 208 8828388 0 0 6088 17 222 808 0 0 58 41
1 8 10394620 107468 208 8833704 0 0 6216 39 255 713 1 2 63 34
0 10 10394620 99976 224 8839932 0 0 5884 19 259 1092 0 1 53 46
0 6 10394620 107716 224 8833452 0 0 6241 7 213 686 0 0 65 35
0 9 10394620 99764 232 8841384 0 0 7068 23 254 1151 0 1 67 32
0 10 10394620 99872 224 8841304 0 0 6332 27 296 931 0 0 65 34
0 9 21220 8927804 600 163188 0 0 7209 33 490 1316 0 7 40 53
0 21 1760 8937956 1240 154272 276 0 3888 40 207 911 0 0 68 32
0 5 1748 8938924 1988 153040 0 0 5180 21 194 1273 1 1 48 50
0 2 1748 8915940 3400 173544 0 0 4284 0 279 9247 4 2 61 33
2 2 1748 8897472 4972 184308 0 0 3953 216 467 3150 4 2 69 25
0 1 1748 8874084 7192 200584 0 0 5977 297 483 3148 4 1 72 23
1 0 1748 8666764 10140 381604 0 0 4813 20 482 6266 6 3 70 21
0 1 1748 8618408 14604 406808 0 0 5375 41 457 3520 4 2 71 23
0 1 1748 8588056 15912 423880 0 0 6492 40 481 2863 3 1 73 22
0 0 1748 8520288 16620 484624 0 0 1177 75 525 3176 9 2 76 13
0 0 1748 8515004 16636 489548 0 0 55 41 273 1148 2 1 95 2
0 0 1748 8502296 16660 494296 0 0 237 37 529 3150 9 1 85 4
1 0 1748 8507388 16680 488732 0 0 1 117 384 2111 4 1 93 2
0 0 1748 8507280 16680 488700 0 0 0 3 328 1868 2 1 97 0
0 0 1748 8507352 16704 488356 0 0 0 28 291 1147 4 1 93 2
0 0 1748 8516000 16704 479716 0 0 0 0 275 1036 3 1 96 0
0 0 1748 8515884 16732 480152 0 0 104 29 299 1633 2 1 95 1
I want to know who is using the mem cache and what files are in the cache so I can troubleshoot further when it happens again.
ali abry
February 17th, 2013, 04:05 PM
check

/var/log/syslog
in there theres information that what program cause this. maybe theres memory leak in one of the program you run.
also you can run command like this in background and check its out put at the time when that problem happens .

$ top -b -d 3 >> system-monitor.txt
number 3 is a delay between updates.
RuralHunter
February 18th, 2013, 03:04 AM
check

/var/log/syslogin there theres information that what program cause this. maybe theres memory leak in one of the program you run.
also you can run command like this in background and check its out put at the time when that problem happens .

$ top -b -d 3 >> system-monitor.txtnumber 3 is a delay between updates.

thanks. forgot to paste the OOM killing log in syslog:


Feb 17 17:21:36 rh-ubt kernel: [25884.678738] Out of memory: Kill process 2119 (nautilus) score 3 or sacrifice child
Feb 17 17:21:36 rh-ubt kernel: [25884.678740] Killed process 2119 (nautilus) total-vm:1043340kB, anon-rss:42424kB, file-rss:19656kB
Feb 17 17:21:36 rh-ubt kernel: [25884.696166] Out of memory: Kill process 4425 (compiz) score 2 or sacrifice child
Feb 17 17:21:36 rh-ubt kernel: [25884.696168] Killed process 4425 (compiz) total-vm:1355928kB, anon-rss:52776kB, file-rss:4092kB
RuralHunter
February 18th, 2013, 07:55 AM
It still happens. This is the top output ordering by memory usage:


$ top

top - 14:49:31 up 4:49, 2 users, load average: 0.36, 0.30, 0.30
Tasks: 195 total, 1 running, 193 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
%Cpu(s): 0.2 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni, 99.8 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
KiB Mem: 10153356 total, 9963548 used, 189808 free, 41276 buffers
KiB Swap: 10394620 total, 6311492 used, 4083128 free, 9107588 cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1126 root 20 0 335m 130m 98m S 0.0 1.3 3:32.63 Xorg
4810 rhunter 20 0 1416m 79m 29m S 0.3 0.8 1:05.66 compiz
2062 rhunter 20 0 1007m 56m 22m S 0.0 0.6 0:05.42 nautilus
4736 rhunter 20 0 748m 47m 22m S 0.0 0.5 0:26.34 qterm
2281 rhunter 20 0 374m 42m 13m S 0.0 0.4 0:00.77 gnome-screensav
2015 rhunter 20 0 695m 38m 4424 S 0.0 0.4 0:02.55 gnome-settings-
2316 rhunter 20 0 487m 35m 3496 S 0.0 0.4 0:01.17 ubuntuone-syncd
1066 root 20 0 264m 30m 5828 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.01 lightdm
2115 rhunter 20 0 408m 23m 9644 S 0.0 0.2 0:05.37 python
2174 rhunter 20 0 540m 22m 9572 S 0.0 0.2 0:05.83 unity-panel-ser
2367 rhunter 20 0 693m 16m 2772 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.23 unity-lens-phot
1861 root 20 0 362m 16m 3192 S 0.0 0.2 0:02.65 python
2541 rhunter 20 0 534m 16m 7972 S 0.0 0.2 0:14.73 gnome-terminal
2425 rhunter 20 0 601m 13m 3792 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.16 unity-scope-vid
2427 rhunter 20 0 454m 11m 2436 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.11 unity-scope-gdo
2373 rhunter 20 0 433m 11m 3272 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.17 unity-lens-vide
2361 rhunter 20 0 411m 9908 2900 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.56 unity-applicati
2197 rhunter 20 0 465m 9640 3256 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.10 signon-ui
2063 rhunter 20 0 515m 9360 3700 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.13 nm-applet
2164 rhunter 20 0 314m 8956 5384 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.45 gtk-window-deco
3552 root 20 0 97192 8312 1516 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.03 system-service-
2455 rhunter 20 0 400m 8028 3776 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.42 update-notifier
2108 rhunter 20 0 394m 7404 4104 S 0.0 0.1 0:02.56 bamfdaemon
2061 rhunter 20 0 436m 7400 3312 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.06 bluetooth-apple
2295 rhunter 20 0 239m 7240 3292 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.14 zeitgeist-fts
2177 rhunter 20 0 421m 7056 3020 S 0.0 0.1 0:02.54 hud-service
2371 rhunter 20 0 829m 6832 2688 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.10 unity-shopping-
1837 root 20 0 180m 6564 1172 S 0.0 0.1 0:03.26 fail2ban-server
1941 rhunter 20 0 389m 6456 3564 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.21 gnome-session
2257 rhunter 20 0 509m 6400 2484 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.15 goa-daemon
2208 rhunter 20 0 483m 6240 3288 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.06 indicator-print
2158 rhunter 20 0 425m 6188 3192 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.08 telepathy-indic
2127 rhunter 20 0 140m 6000 3572 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.22 ibus-engine-pin
2152 rhunter 20 0 316m 5736 3144 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.05 notify-osd
2064 rhunter 20 0 450m 5612 2972 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.07 gnome-fallback-
2068 rhunter 20 0 306m 5504 2976 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.05 polkit-gnome-au
2207 rhunter 20 0 581m 5388 2900 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.15 indicator-datet
2117 rhunter 20 0 210m 4696 3080 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.48 ibus-x11
2232 rhunter 20 0 965m 4596 2600 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 evolution-sourc
2280 rhunter 20 0 406m 4576 3032 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.09 zeitgeist-datah
2287 rhunter 20 0 338m 4524 3280 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.64 zeitgeist-daemo
2369 rhunter 20 0 321m 4524 2564 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.05 unity-music-dae
2078 rhunter 20 0 209m 4476 2776 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.07 gvfs-udisks2-vo
2363 rhunter 20 0 474m 4284 2852 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.07 unity-files-dae
2085 root 20 0 335m 4268 2708 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.85 udisksd
2203 rhunter 20 0 532m 4228 2648 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.06 indicator-sound
914 root 20 0 240m 4220 2888 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.25 NetworkManager
2191 rhunter 20 0 322m 4180 2756 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 mission-control
921 root 20 0 191m 4088 2652 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.26 polkitd
1930 rhunter 20 0 370m 4020 3144 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 gnome-keyring-d
2365 rhunter 20 0 681m 4004 2656 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 unity-gwibber-d


Seems not much memory is used by all those apps but the cache and swap keeps increasing quickly. I'm crazy!
RuralHunter
February 18th, 2013, 07:57 AM
One thing to mention, this happened after I created an "Ubuntu One" account. I'm not sure if it's related to it. Does it have any background processes? if yes how to disable it?
rnerwein
February 18th, 2013, 12:24 PM
One thing to mention, this happened after I created an "Ubuntu One" account. I'm not sure if it's related to it. Does it have any background processes? if yes how to disable it?
hi
the high caching mostely comes from file I/O. UBUNTU one can be a reason for it (depends you give it a lot of space to backup).
the behavior on your system looks for me like a "little" bug. but you can
1. set your swappiness ( /proc/sys/vm/swappiness) to 10.
sudo echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
to make this permanent use /etc/sysctl

2. to get your memory back clean up your cache (in a terminal run)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
sync; sync
sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
# 1 --> free pagecaches, 2 --> free dentries and inodes,3 --> free all
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

the sync command is only to be on the saver side
and send an output of: ps aux (use an attachement)
ciao
aarons6
February 18th, 2013, 02:15 PM
i set asside a 2gb partition for swap.. i have 4gb ram.

i often seen a large amount of swap being used and i tracked it down..

ubuntu is setup to use a large part of system ram for hard drive cache and the system will start using the swap partition very early..

what i did was set my swappiness to 5..
now i can almost fill up my ram before the system decides to swap any to the drive.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq

they say to use 10 but that is still kinda high.. specially if you have a lot of ram.. you will notice swapping around 25%

you can even try 0 if you want, that will keep the system from swapping anything until it absolutely has to.
RuralHunter
February 19th, 2013, 03:12 AM
hi
the high caching mostely comes from file I/O. UBUNTU one can be a reason for it (depends you give it a lot of space to backup).
the behavior on your system looks for me like a "little" bug. but you can
1. set your swappiness ( /proc/sys/vm/swappiness) to 10.
sudo echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
to make this permanent use /etc/sysctl

I will try to set it to 5 as aarons6 (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=845835) suggested


2. to get your memory back clean up your cache (in a terminal run)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
sync; sync
sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
# 1 --> free pagecaches, 2 --> free dentries and inodes,3 --> free all
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

the sync command is only to be on the saver side
and send an output of: ps aux (use an attachement)
ciao
I already tried that with all 3 options(1,2,3) but it didn't have any effect. The cache didn't drop any little and keep increasing still.
RuralHunter
February 19th, 2013, 04:08 AM
changing the swapness didn't help. The problem is still on the cache not the used memory. is there anyway I can see what files are in the cache so I can guess which application is using them? Another observation, the memory releases after I logout and login again.
aarons6
February 19th, 2013, 05:02 AM
i dont think the swap goes back to 0 once its used.

i noticed that if i run a program that uses swap and close it, the swap is still shown as used.. even tho im sure its not.

i just noticed you have 10gb ram?

you have to have a memory leak somewhere.. here is my system

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4136852 3740892 395960 0 465176 2096492
-/+ buffers/cache: 1179224 2957628
Swap: 2048280 8 2048272


i have only 4gb ram and my swap file never goes above a few hundred k.
RuralHunter
February 19th, 2013, 06:45 AM
right. I do believe there is something abnormal. I just want to find what it is
rnerwein
February 19th, 2013, 09:48 AM
right. I do believe there is something abnormal. I just want to find what it is
good morning
i am running 12.04.2 and the command: sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
this works on my system. after the "echo ...." run:
cat /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
what's the output ?
about the contes of the cache - i don't know.
but where is your output of: ps uax ? what i see in the top output is only a part of the running tasks.
about swap: if the system don't need parts of the swaped out the stuff it won't will bring it back.
ciao
RuralHunter
February 19th, 2013, 10:33 AM
good morning
i am running 12.04.2 and the command: sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
this works on my system. after the "echo ...." run:
cat /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
what's the output ?
about the contes of the cache - i don't know.
but where is your output of: ps uax ? what i see in the top output is only a part of the running tasks.
about swap: if the system don't need parts of the swaped out the stuff it won't will bring it back.
ciao
The top output I pasted is ordered by memory usage. I think the rest is not relevant. about the "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches", I tried and it works in normal case. but when the problem happens(usually I notice it by the slow down caused by swapping), the command just has no effect.
rnerwein
February 19th, 2013, 03:14 PM
The top output I pasted is ordered by memory usage. I think the rest is not relevant. about the "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches", I tried and it works in normal case. but when the problem happens(usually I notice it by the slow down caused by swapping), the command just has no effect.
hi again
the reason that i want to see the output of ps aux is that i want to see if there is may be a runaway kernelthread (huge cpu usage) and there is no memory usage shown by this task - but cpu time.
cheers