linux-kernel - Re: tracking memory usage/leak in "inactive" field in /proc/meminfo?

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Message-ID: <20100210035052.GH3290@balbir.in.ibm.com>
Date:	Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:20:52 +0530
From:	Balbir Singh <balbir@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com>
Cc:	Chris Friesen <cfriesen@...tel.com>,
	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	linux-mm@...ck.org
Subject: Re: tracking memory usage/leak in "inactive" field in /proc/meminfo?

* KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com> [2010-02-10 09:32:07]:

> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm hoping you can help me out.  I'm on a 2.6.27 x86 system and I'm
> > seeing the "inactive" field in /proc/meminfo slowly growing over time to
> > the point where eventually the oom-killer kicks in and starts killing
> > things.  The growth is not evident in any other field in /proc/meminfo.
> > 
> > I'm trying to figure out where the memory is going, and what it's being
> > used for.
> > 
> > As I've found, the fields in /proc/meminfo don't add up...in particular,
> > active+inactive is quite a bit larger than
> > buffers+cached+dirty+anonpages+mapped+pagetables+vmallocused.  Initially
> > the difference is about 156MB, but after about 13 hrs the difference is
> > 240MB.
> > 
> > How can I track down where this is going?  Can you suggest any
> > instrumentation that I can add?
> > 
> > I'm reasonably capable, but I'm getting seriously confused trying to
> > sort out the memory subsystem.  Some pointers would be appreciated.
> 
> can you please post your /proc/meminfo?
>

Do you have swap enabled? Can you help with the OOM killed dmesg log?
Does the situation get better after OOM killing. /proc/meminfo as
Kosaki suggested would be important as well. 

-- 
	Three Cheers,
	Balbir
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