Memory accounting problem in 2.4.13, 2.4.14pre, and possibly 2.4.14

Mike Fedyk (mfedyk@matchmail.com)
Tue, 6 Nov 2001 14:03:35 -0800


Hello,

I am trying to track down a memory accounting problem I've seen ever since I
tried a 2.4.13 based kernel. Specifically I've noticed an overflow for the
"Cached" entry in /proc/meminfo, but also the numbers don't add up to the
total memory count. Shouldn't they add up? If they should, I haven't seen
one that does....

I first noticed it on:
2.4.13freeswan-1.91+ac5+preempt+netdev_random+vm_freeswap
2.4.14-pre6+preempt+netdev_random+ext3_0.9.14-2414p5

I thought it may be preempt so I tried:
2.4.14-pre8+netdev_random-p7+xsched+ext3_0.9.14-2414p8+elevator

But I still get the same problem with "Cached".

Now I'm trying to see if it could be ext3 with:
2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8

And I haven't noticed the problem after 16 hours uptime. Sometimes it would
show earlier, or later.

total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 261443584 254337024 7106560 0 58957824 76398592
Swap: 199815168 1228800 198586368
MemTotal: 255316 kB
MemFree: 6940 kB
MemShared: 0 kB
Buffers: 57576 kB
Cached: 73408 kB
SwapCached: 1200 kB
Active: 65048 kB
Inactive: 138040 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 255316 kB
LowFree: 6940 kB
SwapTotal: 195132 kB
SwapFree: 193932 kB

Subtracted from MemTotal should = 0:
MemFree: 6940 kB
Active: 65048 kB
Inactive: 138040 kB
= 45288 kB remaining

Shouldn't these numbers add up to MemTotal?

$ dpkg -l "*gcc*"|grep ii
ii gcc 2.95.4-8 The GNU C compiler.
ii gcc-2.95 2.95.4-0.01100 The GNU C compiler.

On Debian Sid.

I can provide more information upon request...

Mike
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