[ILUG] Managing the Filesystem cache . . .

[kevin lyda]

John_White at dell.com wrote:
> Does anybody know if there is a way of telling a system not to use more than
> n% of ram to cache the filesystem ?
> 
> Also, does anybody know of a way to get the cache to be fulshed to disk (a
> la sync)
> and also have the kernel free the associated memory ?.

first i absolutely must ask why do you want to know?  many people think
that the cache is taking memory (it only takes memory if it's free),
that the cache causes swapping (it doesn't, the file cache gets flushed
first, then programs get swapped).  akaik most of the cache is read
cache - writes get flushed pretty quick (and mount options can make them
"immediate" if required  - i think).

look at the files in /proc/sys/vm and read either the docs in
/usr/src/linux/Documentation or poke about in the source for the proc
fs.  and be careful.

kevin

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