[Samba] Memory Usage

[Jon Niehof]

> just implemented a new samba server and did a mass file copy.  
> when I do a free it says that all 256 is being used.
> however, right now, there is _zero_ load on the server.

I presume you mean "all 256MB of RAM that I have installed 
on the samba server"

Take a look at this output from my server:
        total  used    free  shared  buffers  cached
Mem:   514100 507112  6988  0       71808    37024

In particular, "buffers" and "cached" which are included in 
"used" but are actually available memory. Linux uses as much 
memory as you have available in order to provide disc 
caching and file buffering. After a mass copy it wouldn't 
surprise me if you had very little listed in free: all that 
memory was used in speeding up your copy! It will be 
available as soon as something else needs it.