[wellylug] Odd memory usage

[andrej at paradise.net.nz]

Quoting Jamie Dobbs <jamie.dobbs at orcon.net.nz>:

> Andrej
> 
> You're looking at the graphs "back to front" they are showing FREE
> memory,
> not used memory, thus the lower they are the more of a worry it is. (I
> looked at them the same way to start with until I realised this)
> I have since found that the culprit it the TAR command, as soon as I
> run
> tar to backup my mail files my available memory drops to around 14MB. I
> think it might be time to find an alternative to TAR.
I don't know how your MRTG is set-up, but if it
happens during the back-up I wouldn't worry too
much, either, it's most likely just the buffers
and cache, and then the culprit isn't tar but 
the kernel ;) ... I'd still have a look at the 
output of top during the time tar is running, 
then ... again, until such time as the swapper
doesn't start overflowing there shouldn't be
any problem ... if yours isn't used at all the
14MB free is perfectly sane.