Configuring disk cache

[Anton Markov]

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Hello everyone,

Often when I am using my computer for a long time, I find that the
system starts swapping out pages, even though I still have 200 or so MB
or RAM free. I understand that the system is trying to make for the
system cache, but since I keep most of the applications I need open, I
would like Linux to not use the swap until absolutely necessary. I have
512MB RAM, and I am not running a server, so I see no need to have a
200MB disk cache.

Right now I am using a crude hack: I start with no swap and have a
script activate it when RAM is low, then deactivates swap when the RAM
usage drops to force data back into RAM.


So my question: how can I tell the kernel to give more priority to
application data in RAM, rather than the disk cache. Is there some /proc
variable I can tune for this?


Is there a better solution (besides more RAM and faster drives)?
Something I am not seeing?


Thanks!

- --
Anton Markov <("anton" + "@" + "truxtar" + "." + "com")>

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