What Is Inactive Memory in Linux?
Contents

Inactive memory is memory that was allocated to a process that is no longer running.

How do I reclaim inactive memory in Linux?

Every Linux System has three options to clear cache without interrupting any processes or services.

  1. Clear PageCache only. # sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches.
  2. Clear dentries and inodes. # sync; echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches.
  3. Clear pagecache, dentries, and inodes. …
  4. sync will flush the file system buffer.

What are inactive pages in Linux?

The Inactive pages are the first candidate for eviction should the system come under memory pressure. High values are not harmful and it is a general behavior of Linux to keep as much cached as opposed to free as possible (it’s for better performance in the case of frequently-used items).

Sophia Al-Mansoor

Sophia Al-Mansoor

Global Business & E-Commerce Reporter

Sophia analyzes international trade, startup ecosystems, retail transformation, and supply chain logistics for modern digital publications.

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