memory

[Chris Robinson]

----- Original Message ----

From: Geoff <geoff.warren at optusnet.com.au>
To: ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
Sent: Sun, 31 July, 2011 12:52:14 PM
Subject: memory

Hi there,
Can anyone recommend a system memory manager/tweaker program?
Geoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Geoff, 

The layered architecture of the Linux system makes it close to impossible to 
manipulate memory usage.  A program can request memory or release it, but beyond 
that the kernel controls what gets allocated, how it is released, and how it is 
cleaned up.

To put it another way, above the hardware there is a memory manager which pools 
all physical and virtual memory, and this resource is shared and controlled by 
the memory manager.  All memory therefore looks like virtual memory beyond this 
point, including (especially!) for programs in user space.  Any data you can get 
from the system about memory usage therefore deals with this "virtual" memory 
space.

It's possible to reserve some physical memory so that the memory manager and the 
kernel cannot use it (with badram), but that would mean that it would not be 
available to user space or kernel space at all.  The purpose of badram is so 
that you can tell the system to not use damaged parts of a memory array - very 
nifty.

I like to use Gkrellm to monitor my system generally and top can give useful 
information about more specific memory usage amongst other things.

What did you actually want to be able to do?

Chris.