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From: "Hannu E K Nevalainen \(garbage mail\)" <garbage_collector AT telia DOT com>
To: <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Subject: RE: Win2k and cygwin memory leak
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 00:10:54 +0200
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 "Me too!" `8-7, well...

 I consider this be a fine-tune issue regarding Windows, this ofcourse
affects cygwin - and all other software packages that has been installed.
I'll let it be unsaid whether this should have been automated by M$ or
not... (I _do_ have an opinion... ;-)


After having read what is on this page:
> RAMpage =>       http://www.jfitz.com/software/RAMpage/

I can only say; I _DO_ agree.

 I have been running W98 (and SE) ever since I got my brand new P2 AT 450/128MB
RAM
(it was top spec. at that time!) - I installed W2K just recently. (Now w
256MB)

 The first 2-3 years it was turned on, all the time - running the first
"distributed.net" projects. At least three times a week I had to restart
windows, simply because RAM was all wasted. As I later concluded - it was
vcache (i.e. disk buffering) that filled up RAM to the extent that there was
NOTHING left for application use - at this point all memory allocations lead
to EXTENSIVE swap file use.

 IMO this behaviour was/is very prominent in W98. I found a remedy though...
first running a sibling to RAMpage, then by fiddling a bit with
"system.ini" - see below.

 This little addition to the ini-file has held the machine very much more
usable, with just a little more disk-thrashing as side effect.

 I wouldn't be too surprised if there STILL is something like this left in
more recent Windows versions.
If there is a this easy remedy for them is beyond my knowledge.

 So, cgf is right here IMO.



HOWTO, FYI:
 I have kept maxfilecache (KBytes) at 10-20% of installed RAM and chunksize
(Bytes) as high as I have considered reasonable.
 i.e.
   a) maxfilecache/chunksize should be a fairly high number. (better
cahche-ability)
   b) chunksize shouldn't be _too_ small. (too small -> overhead grows)

 Please note that I have NOT done any benchmarks here...


-- system.ini - addition/change for 256MB RAM --

[vcache]
maxfilecache=40960
chunksize=2048

--


/Hannu E K Nevalainen, B.Sc. EE Microcomputer systems - 59?14'N, 17?12'E


--8<--

> "Christopher Faylor" <cgf-idd AT cygwin DOT com>@cygwin.com on
> 08/07/2003 11:40:57
> AM
>
> Please respond to cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
>
> Sent by:    cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
>
>
> To:    cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
> cc:     (bcc: Brian Kelly/WTC1/Empire)
>
> Subject:    Re: Win2k and cygwin memory leak
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 11:32:42AM -0400, Rolf Campbell wrote:
> >This may be a Win2000 problem, not a cygwin problem...What service pack
> >are you running?
>
> "May be"?  You run a bunch of programs, exit them, and Windows
> slowly loses
> memory after each exit?
>
> Hard to see how that's a cygwin problem.
>
> cgf

--END OF MESSAGE--


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