top utility and SUN 3/280 running OS 4.0.1

[Rafael X Mayer]

We have the `top' utility here and we are using it to help us monitor
system load during the day.  The memory report fields at the top of the
display have us a little confused.  The display line is as follows:

Memory: 6744K  (6344K) real,  416K free

The manual pages claim the first number is the amount of real memory in
use.  The number in parentheses is the amount of real memory considered
active.  The third number is the amount of free memory.  (Under SUN OS 4.0
virtual memory stats are not displayed.)

We have 16MB of physical memory on the system.  Clearly adding the first
and last numbers together, does not yield 16MB.  Is this a bug in `top',
or are we not understanding the manual pages.  If it is us that are
confused, how are we to interpret these numbers? Of passing academic
interest, we have also noticed that these two numbers don't even add up to
a constant value. The sum is always changing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Confused in Ft. Lauderdale
-- 
Rafael Mayer
UUCP: {gatech!uflorida,ucf-cs}!novavax!proxftl!rafael

[[ Top is looking at the same information it always has (it just obatins
it in a slightly different fashion).  Either something has changed
internally or there's a bug in the kernel's updating of those figures.
I'll take a more serious look at it sometime soon.  I didn't do the 4.0
stuff in "top" and I haven't had a chance to really look at it closely.
--wnl ]]