*BSD News Article 88962


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From: nate@see.my.signature (Nate Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: 2.2 GAMMA 2/5 results in SWAP FULL?
Date: 13 Feb 1997 18:25:19 GMT
Organization: SRI Intl. - Montana Operations
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <5dvmaf$d0b@helena.MT.net>
References: <m267zzxceb.fsf@golfgod.raleigh.ibm.com> <5dritf$a1j@dfw-ixnews8.ix.netcom.com> <5dt6ae$7kq@bofh.noc.best.net> <5du967$ng6@dfw-ixnews8.ix.netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: trout.mt.sri.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:35355

In article <5du967$ng6@dfw-ixnews8.ix.netcom.com>,
Netcom user <tjevans@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> The way linux and FreeBSD allocate swap are not the same.  You might
>> as well compare swap usage on a Win95 box with your linux box.
>
>Not exactly, I'm comparing almost identical applications/X etc, on 
>two different Unix boxes, with one requiring almost twice the memory.

No, it requires twice as much swap, which is a different problem
altogether.  SWAP != memory.

FreeBSD out of the box uses alot more swap than Linux does for the same
applications, but if you notice you'll have more 'free' for cache and
that the system is much more responsive to loads.

By optimizing for *always* trying to keep lots of pages free, the system
is responsive under *all* loads at a cost that under light loads you
still use up SWAP.


Nate
-- 
nate@sri.com           | Research Engineer, SRI Intl. - Montana Operations
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nate@trout.mt.sri.com  | An unfeatured document is a bug.
home #: (406) 443-7063 |                                - John Polstra