Home/ Questions/Q 6355775
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-24T22:50:00+00:00

Here is my problem: after running a suite of programs, free tells me that

  • 0

Here is my problem: after running a suite of programs, free tells me that after execution there is about 1 GB less memory free. After some searches I found SO: What really happens when you dont free after malloc which (as I understand it) makes clear that missing memory deallocations should not be the problem… (is that correct?)

top does not show any processes that use significant amounts of memory.

How can I find out ‘what happend’ to the memory, i.e. which program allocated it and why it is not free after program execution?

Where does free collect its information?

(I am running a recent Ubuntu version)

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Yes, memory used by your program is freed after your program exits.

    The statistics in “free” are confusing, but the fact is that the memory IS available to other programs:

    http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/linux-free-memory-is-it-free-or-reclaimable-yes-when-i-want-free-memory-i-want-free-memory/

    http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/software/linux-kernel/free-mem.html

    Here’s an event better link:

    http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

    • 0