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

Mike Fedyk (mfedyk@matchmail.com)
Wed, 7 Nov 2001 13:36:44 -0800


On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 02:03:35PM -0800, Mike Fedyk wrote:
> 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.
>
> >From current (2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8) kernel:
> 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...
>

To continue the results...

Now : 1 day(s), 15:47:31 running Linux 2.4.14-ext3-2.4-0.9.14-2414p8

has also exibited the problem with cached.

I'm going to try unpatched 2.4.14 now...

Mike
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