[kde-solaris] ... people are running KDE3 on systems with as little as 64MB for daily use.

[Richard]

Hi all,

>> With this configuration, this
>> explains why, when rebooting Solaris, the files in /tmp are gone, and
>> /tmp is re-created.

That is because a lot of file-metadata is kept in RAM only in the case of
tmpfs. This includes modificationtime, accesspermissions and such. Also,
things written to a tmpfs-filesystem (tmpfsfs... hm.) will remain in RAM
until RAM is needed by running processes, in which case there will be
swapping.

> But, still, this doesn't explain why a set of application,
> e.g. KDE, that runs fine with a certain amount of RAM + SWAP
> would require explicit increase of SWAP just because of adding
> additional RAM (which implicitly increases SWAP by itself).
>
> This doesn't make sense to me. I'm sorry, but the coin doesn't drop.

I'm slowly reaching an understanding here. From tmpfs(5):
Another constraint is that the number of files available in a tmpfs
filesystem is calculated based on the physical memory of the machine and
not the size of the swap device/partition.

Apparently this "inodetable" allows for the allocation of 3xRAM filesize,
although I have not yet found documentation that verifies this.

> Let's use KDE as an example. Just because of increasing the amount of
> RAM; KDE won't use any more of the '/tmp' resources, would it?

I'm starting to believe that KDE does, at least under Solaris.

> In this particular case that would be either in
> Solaris, KDE, or in the way KDE is built (or possibly
> depending on the Solaris release or architecture).


> I don't know which. I'm just sure it doesn't have
> anything to do with *magic* :-)

Maybe Solaris/KDE are sufficiently advanced :-)


> Finally Stefan! I'm sure everbody is really, really
> greatful to You for building and providing your KDE
> binaries.

That most certainly is true. I've grown very fond of KDE over the years,
and am very happy to be able to run it at work as well.

Cheers,
Richard

-- 
Het begint met margarine, en het eindigt met de teloorgang van
alle menselijke waarden!
  -- De Volkskeuken, 28 oktober 2003