On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, João Miguel Pais wrote:

I was curious about the following: when someone install several libraries but doesn't use them, do they keep space in memory?

Yes.

But if you run Linux or a similarly endowed kernel, then executables and libraries are not in the data area of RAM - they are loaded in the file cache instead, so that they never take space in the swapfile.

And if so, much (probably variable from case to case)?

Very much variable. A very small external may take 0.01 meg, while Gridflow or GEM may take 2 megs or so. Of course, if you run any of those two last externals, you are probably manipulating datasets of many more megs, so 2 megs is small.

In a real performance, if somebody wants to minimize risks, is it advisable to unload all unecessary llibraries, or they are only used when the object is used?

Use a system monitor program to find out how much memory you have left and how much PD takes. The best thing to do to minimize risks is to find out whether your installation leaks memory. Make a graph of the memory over a long period of time and figure out if it'll ever blow up. Usually the curve goes up slightly after startup and then stabilizes, but if it doesn't, then chances are it'll eventually crash. Then you have to have those bugs fixed in some way.

I speak from personal experience here; the kind of experience that is gathered from one's own mistakes.

Mathieu Bouchard http://artengine.ca/matju