Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!pcg
From: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Question about memory
Summary: The System V swapper stinks.
Keywords: memory, swap
Message-ID: <1721@aber-cs.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 90 22:11:40 GMT
Reply-To: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Organization: Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth
	(Disclaimer: my statements are purely personal)
Lines: 23

In article <156@cms2.UUCP> alan@cms2.UUCP (Alan McCain) writes:
  Several weeks ago I saw a posting about a question someone had about the
  memory in their system.  They said that when their system goes into swap it
  never seems to come out of it completely, even when everyone logs off.  I
  have the same situation.  Whey does this happen and can it be fixed?
  
  Email responses are fine.

No, no. This is a pet peeve of mine. The System V swapper stinks, as
reported by Bach in his book.

In particular, on a 386, it will still do expansion out swaps. Having done
them, it locks itself itself up waiting for the inswap.

The way to get out of it is usually to just make some process active; this
may well lead to a reshuffle of memory, an thus the swapper will unblock
itself. It helps to kill a process, also.

The real solution is to rewrite the swapper/pager of System V. Tough luck!
-- 
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi           | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk