[LI] Swap space usage

[Rajesh Fowkar <rfowkar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everybody,

When I type free command in an X terminal window I get the following :

[rajesh@rajesh] ~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         46904      45844       1060      33652       2284      21332
-/+ buffers/cache:      22228      24676
Swap:       128480       2888     125592
[rajesh@rajesh] ~$   

I have noticed that every time the actual RAM free is very less and the swap
space is not used much as in the above case then Why is so much swap space
required and when it is used to it's max.

Same state remains inspite of loading  heavy duty application like StarOffice.
After loading StarOffice it gives the following output :

[rajesh@rajesh] ~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         46904      46160        744      40420       1004      25448
-/+ buffers/cache:      19708      27196
Swap:       128480      12436     116044

I have got 48MB SDRAM on my machine. As per my knowledger Swap space is used
after RAM on the machine is fully utilised. But if swap space is not even used
to the extent of 50 MB than why is it recommended to keep the Swap space size
to 128MB ?

Can anybody throw light on this ?

Thanks in advance.

--  Rajesh Fowkar
----------------------------------------
Kurtarkar Nagari, Bldg-C,
Flat No. T4, Third Floor,
Shantinagar(Santacruz), Ponda-Goa-403401
Ph. : (0832)315932
Email : rfowkar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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