/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

sulekha · 12-05-2008, 05:41 AM

Hi all

what exactly is the purpose of /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches file ?

can any one give a practical situation where the tip given in the following link is used ?

http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008...-in-linux.html

ilikejam · 12-05-2008, 07:15 AM

The only time I've ever seen anyone use this is when doing I/O benchmarking - dropping the caches forces disk operations to happen on the disk instead of in RAM.

Dave

sulekha · 12-05-2008, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilikejam

The only time I've ever seen anyone use this is when doing I/O benchmarking - dropping the caches forces disk operations to happen on the disk instead of in RAM.

Dave

now what is this dentries ?

syg00 · 12-06-2008, 12:39 AM

That's how I've used it - used to have to reboot all the time. Can also be employed when apps (updatedb e.g. - prior to mlocate) pollute the caches overnight.
As for dentry - what does google tell you ?.

sulekha · 12-06-2008, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

That's how I've used it - used to have to reboot all the time. Can also be employed when apps (updatedb e.g. - prior to mlocate) pollute the caches overnight.
As for dentry - what does google tell you ?.

the folloing site

http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary says like this

dentry

Directory entry, in-core structure defining a file's details: inode, parent dentry etc. Cached in a hash table indexed by hashed filename (see dcache).