GIMP 2.0.1 doesn't free X memory
On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Alex Dunaevski wrote:
I discovered X server eating lots of memory while working with subj.
Moreover after i close GIMP it remains allocated, here's line from ps:
...
root 948 11.0 55.5 159540 70648 ? SL 14:19 20:20 /usr/X11R6/bin/X
^^^^
...
I have 128mb RAM +190mb swap, so 55% is quite a lot.
The only way to free that memory is terminating X server :(
Keep in mind that the memory usage of X includes the video ram of your
graphics card. So, if you have a card with 64MB of ram, then ps will show
X having 64+X MB.
Also, X does a lot of caching (images), which adds a lot to its memory
size, but sooner or later the memory used for cache by X will be swaped
out, with no difference in the performance of X.
In the line you pasted we can see that only 70MB are currently used by
the X server and I assume that most of them are from the graphics card.
PS. Oh, I forgot to say that the linux kernel will free memory only when
it is needed by something else. (of course the behaviour of the VM changes
with every full moon, so what I describe might be inaccurate)
In any case, that's not a gimp bug.