Linux Swap USAGE

Saptarshi4031 · 06-24-2013, 04:20 AM

Hi ,

I have a linux system with 4 GB of RAM.

Although my actual ram usage is around 1.6 GB
What is puzzling me is still around 60 MB of swap space usage is being shown by
system monitor.

Why swap space is being used even though i have sufficient free ram ?

Any clues.

I have not put any constraint on the available ram.

Regards

polpak · 06-24-2013, 04:47 AM

Found this article an excellent explanation about usage and setting up of SWAP file

https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jd...-opensuse-114/

.

Saptarshi4031 · 06-24-2013, 04:52 AM

Thanks..

I think the answer is hibernate. I observe the phenomenon only after I keep the system running
for a long time and it between it may go to hibernation mode.

Madhu Desai · 06-24-2013, 05:03 AM

From RHEL Documentation:

"In some cases it is good for the swap partition to be used. For example, long running processes often access only a subset of the page frames they obtained. This means that the swap partition can safely be used even if memory is available because system memory could be better served for disk cache to improve overall system performance."

More:
https://access.redhat.com/site/docum...swapspace.html
https://access.redhat.com/site/docum...wap_Space.html

jefro · 06-24-2013, 03:12 PM

Not all programs care what has been set for swap, the applications use swap anyway.