\n 22:30:08 up 5:03, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00\n43 processes: 42 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped\nCPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle\n total 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 99.7%\n cpu00 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 99.6%\n cpu01 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 99.8%\nMem: 1028520k av, 317272k used, 711248k free, 0k shrd, 46052k buff\n 147508k actv, 123548k in_d, 276k in_c\nSwap: 2044072k av, 0k used, 2044072k free 207588k cached\n
Note the free amount with nothing running.
So I then create a large file and DDed it to /dev/null:
\n 22:30:08 up 5:03, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00\n43 processes: 42 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped\n 22:33:20 up 5:06, 2 users, load average: 1.31, 0.58, 0.21\n44 processes: 43 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped\nCPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle\n total 5.0% 0.0% 7.5% 0.0% 0.0% 85.0% 2.5%\n cpu00 5.0% 0.0% 10.0% 0.0% 0.0% 85.0% 0.0%\n cpu01 5.0% 0.0% 5.0% 0.0% 0.0% 85.0% 5.0%\nMem: 1028520k av, 1012520k used, 16000k free, 0k shrd, 48304k buff\n 188948k actv, 728000k in_d, 14256k in_c\nSwap: 2044072k av, 0k used, 2044072k free 881060k cached\n
Memory all gone!
Don't worry, it is used by the cache and will be returned
to the system as needed.