X-Original-To: pgsql-performance-postgresql.org@postgresql.org Received: from localhost (wm.hub.org [200.46.204.128]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 783A49FA0FD for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:04:50 -0300 (ADT) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.128]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 16251-02 for ; Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:04:47 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- Received: from vms040pub.verizon.net (vms040pub.verizon.net [206.46.252.40]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E14B9F9F77 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:04:46 -0300 (ADT) Received: from osgiliath.mathom.us ([72.66.19.85]) by vms040.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-4.02 (built Sep 9 2005)) with ESMTPA id <0J5M002NG0BN9VS2@vms040.mailsrvcs.net> for pgsql-performance@postgresql.org; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:04:36 -0500 (CDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by osgiliath.mathom.us (Postfix) with ESMTP id 67CDC700F7 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:04:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from osgiliath.mathom.us ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (osgiliath.home.mathom.us [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id orgjn7JeFbN9 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:04:33 -0400 (EDT) Received: by osgiliath.mathom.us (Postfix, from userid 1000) id B51CE700FC; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:04:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:04:32 -0400 From: Michael Stone Subject: Re: Vacuums on large busy databases In-reply-to: <1158281522.29889.200.camel@dogma.v10.wvs> To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Mail-followup-to: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Message-id: <20060915010429.GP6030@mathom.us> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-disposition: inline X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at mathom.us X-Pgp-Fingerprint: 53 FF 38 00 E7 DD 0A 9C 84 52 84 C5 EE DF 7C 88 References: <56FA8838-6DEA-4505-990D-85D5EDA26243@fastcrypt.com> <470FED70-B3BA-4B6C-A6B1-DFD8882746B2@fastcrypt.com> <20060914204220.GL6030@mathom.us> <1158281522.29889.200.camel@dogma.v10.wvs> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.134 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=FORGED_RCVD_HELO, SPF_PASS X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200609/193 X-Sequence-Number: 20879 On Thu, Sep 14, 2006 at 05:52:02PM -0700, Jeff Davis wrote: >Any long-running system will have very little "free" memory. Free memory >is wasted memory, so the OS finds some use for it. The important part of the output of "free" in this context isn't how much is free, it's how much is cache vs how much is allocated to programs. Other os's have other ways of telling the same thing. Neither of those numbers generally has much to do with how much shows up in ps when large amounts of shared memory are in use. Mike Stone