[plug] Memory question - Debian Sarge

[Timothy White]

Firstly check the memory before and after with 'free -m'
$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           999        964         34          0        167        325
-/+ buffers/cache:        471        527
Swap:         1961         61       1899
Take note of the -/+ buffer... line as this is actually usage compared
to the Mem line.

Then to find out which processes are using the memory, run top and
sort (Shift o to select sort field) by %MEM (Physical memory) or VIRT
(Virtual Image Size). VIRT will allow you to see the total memory
including swap and shared IIRC. These should give you some idea of
what is using what. I'd be tempted so say it's a server that's
running. You have any database servers running? Oh, you'll probably
want to run those tests from a TTY so that you don't have to login to
X which will obviously open more programs. Also, If X is left running
for a long time (weeks) it can sometimes use lots of memory. not sure
why.

See how those commands go, hopefully you'll be able to see what is
using the memory. Otherwise I'll try and right a ps command that you
can post for us.

Tim