[GRASSLIST:4626] Re: GRASS and Linux kernels

["Fernández-Victorio Arévalo, Gonzalo"]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Russell Senior [mailto:seniorr at aracnet.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 2:32 PM
> >>>>> "Nigel" == Nigel McFarlane <nrm at kingtide.com.au> writes:
> 
> Nigel> I thought I'd just pass on my experiences with GRASS on Linux.
> 
> Nigel> I've been doing heavy processing using RedHat Linux 7.2, which
> Nigel> is kernel 2.4.7-10. I'm typically using 98% of available
> Nigel> memory, but without swapping or paging.
> 

Linux kernel previous to 2.4.10 did have several problems in what it's known
as Virtual Memory (VM) subsystem: the portion of linux kernel that manages
memory and swap.

In fact, (this maybe off-topic), Linus Torvalds (the leader "integrator" of
Linux kernel??) did change the VM subsystem in the middle of a stable
series, and that wasn't well accepted by many kernel developers. 
Some say the kernel didn't work properly, (and what Nigel says could be a
sign), and others say Linus Torvalds wasn't accepting the patches from the
then VM subsystem responsible: Rik van Riel, and that if he would have
accepted those patches, the kernel could have be better.

Rik van Riel VM additions are now in the development series (2.5.x).

> You don't provide quite enough information to be sure, but it sounds
> like you've hit on a common misconception.  It is _normal_ to "use all
> available memory" on Linux.

But it's much more normal to have more programs loaded than those strictly
in memory. That's why we have swap and VM: we have in memory the portion of
programs/data that we are using right now. The rest is on the disk.

Regards:



Gonzalo