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- From: cambria@smaug.enet.dec.com (Michael C. Cambria)
- Subject: Re: Does anyone know...Swap File
- Message-ID: <1993Jan7.144505.6099@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
- Sender: usenet@nntpd.lkg.dec.com (USENET News System)
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
- References: <Gary.Woodman.905.726283143@anu.edu.au> <1993Jan06.162100.29821@watson.ibm.com> <1993Jan6.204721.27215@apgea.army.mil> <1993Jan6.222411.502@njitgw.njit.edu>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 13:38:04 GMT
- Lines: 51
-
-
- In article <1993Jan6.222411.502@njitgw.njit.edu>, dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) writes...
- >In article <1993Jan6.204721.27215@apgea.army.mil> rcmerrit@apgea.army.mil (Robert C. Merritt <rcmerrit>) writes:
- >>ok, the new question is: Does the swap file keep growning? I plan to run it
- >>24 hours aday (for my BBS) and I don't want to wake up and see a 30 meg swap
- >>file!!!
- >
- >No. The swap file is much like a stack. When pages at the end of the
- >file are released, the file will shrink. It grows and shrinks in 1MB
- >increments. Also, pages that were swapped out don't normally get
- >swapped back in until they're used, so the file may not shring when
- >you expect it to. Finally, compression is only done during idle time,
- >so periods of high activity will prevent shrinkage.
- >
- >But, in general, the swap file does shrink, but never to it's
- >"just-booted" initial size. Mine starts at 3MB, and usually remains
- >between 6MB and 10MB, depending on how many apps I've running.
- >
- >>next question:
- >>With a 486 DX 33 and 16 megs of ram, normally running only 2 or three applica-
- >>tions at one time of fewer, mainly dos programs or maybe 1 os/2-windows
- >>program and a dos based BBS program (telegard); What size of a swap file
- >>should I expect to see?
- >
- >With a 16MB system, probably less than 4MB in most cases. Remember
- >that DOS apps consume about 1MB each, plus any XMS or EMS memory they
- >choose to use. An OS/2 BBS program will use less, since it will only
- >get what it needs instead of an entire virtual-8088 worth.
- >
-
- [.sig deleted]
-
- I've done some testing with the memlab1.exe program supplied with
- Redbook vol. I (still trying to see if os2 can see > 16MB on my
- Gateway 2000 386/33 ISA system.) I grap more and more VM each
- time trying to find when swapping starts.
-
- I've allocated and written to as much as 25MB of virtual memory,
- causing the swap file to grow large. The program exits, I leave
- the PC for one or more hours, and the swap file stays about the
- same. If I do something with the machine instead of walking away
- for a few hours, the swap file will shrink, but not much.
-
- However, if I run the same program, memlab1.exe, but just allocate
- and write to 1 32 bit word (I know that a 4K page is still allocated)
- and then exit, the swap file shrinks to just above the minimum value
- specified in config.sys.
-
- Has anyone seen similar behavior?
-
- /Mike
-