Score:1

Is it normal for Ubuntu 20.04 to use more memory over time even after all apps (except Stacer) are closed?

co flag

I am running 20.04 LTS and having no functionality issues. But I noticed that after booting and logging in, Stacer reports I am using about 1.5GB of RAM. If I don't launch a lot of apps (or if I launch apps and then close them) a few hours later, Stacer shows that with no other apps loaded, I am using about 8GB of RAM. This hasn't been an issue so far because I have 16GB of RAM installed, but I am wondering if this is normal behavior? Does memory usage expand to 8GB then stabilize there? When I look at the list of processes running (immediately after booting and again at a later time) it seems that several have expanded their memory use, so no one process stands out.

Score:0
it flag

Yes. The system caches I/O buffers, buffers for inodes, etc. Accessing these from memory is much quicker than accessing the disk.

Think back to the old days when disks were physically large, rotated slowly, and were to be avoided, if possible.

If programs want memory, these caches can easily be freed by the system, and used by the program.

mangohost

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