Clearing Cache without restarting?

[Methal]

A little explanation is required here.

I've got 2 gigs of physical ram.

I've noticed that the more i load and close, internet pages, Folding at home stuff, any programs that I start us memory, and cache.

The resource monitor says stuff like: "Memory: 33% used by programs. 22% used as cache."

when i first turn my computer on it says "Memory: 13% used by programs. 12% used as cache"

after a day or so, or if I use my computer a lot i'll see "Memory: 33% used by programs. 66% used as cache"

I can close everything yet it will still say its using all that memory and cache.

the only performance issues i notice is internet speed seems to drop, and program load times drop slightly. (almost not noticeable)

its just my OCD that kicks in and says "the devil is it doing with all that cache?"

anyone know why that is? or how to clear it?

[remoulder]

The resource monitor says stuff like: "Memory: 33% used by programs. 22% used as cache."

What resource monitor?

"Memory: 33% used by programs. 22% used as cache."

Are you referring to swap here or?

[Aging Technogeek]

I've seen the same thing when ripping CDs. The system monitor panel applet shows not only program memory usage but also RAM used as cache memory by the running programs. With 6 GB of ram in Mint 8x64, After 5 or 6 CDs, my monitor applet shows 350-400 MB in program use and 2.5-4 GB of RAM used as cache memory. The only way I've found to clear the cache is to reboot. It needs clearing because the program in use tends to slow down when the total RAM usage approaches the installed RAM amount.

[Methal]

its just the system monitor you can add to the panel.

I know its not swap because its not using the hard drive. Its in the ram.

[remoulder]

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=589975

[Methal]

Code: Select all

# sync
# echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

didn't do anything that I can see. It still says "Memory: 22% in use by programs. 72% in use as cache"