From: probreak@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (James Michael Chacon) Subject: Re: Questions about virtual mem. Date: 18 Apr 1993 02:50:57 -0500
jmward@ucrengr (jonathan ward) writes:
>Peter A. Schwenk (schwenk@fred.cis.udel.edu) wrote:
>: I have a few questions about Linux. I haven't read a FAQ, so bear with me.
>: Does Linux support virtual memory, or once system RAM is used up, crash city?
>Yes, Linux does support virtual memory, in the form of a swap partition. It
>can be made as large as you want, although once you get around 12 megs,
>anything more is a waste of disk space: it won't be used. I run my system
>on four megs with a 12 meg swap partition, and it will run X - very slowly,
>but I haven't run out of memory yet( X usually likes eight.).
Actually, this completely depends on what you plan on doing with linux.
I run a 486-33, with 8M, and 16M swap and can run out of memory easily
just by working long enough. I have a couple of applications that use 2-3M,
and I don't use X.
Compile something large on top af that and you can quickly run out. Remember,
with a unix style system more is always better when it comes to memory.
This is my current average right now, with 6 VC's open, and 1 telnet
connection.
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 7340 5308 2032 572 1440
Swap: 16376 5896 10480
This is during compilation, so thats why so much free shows up, but it
would be pretty easy to run up the other 10M as well.
James