understanding linux cache and free command

Hi All,

I have created few memory cache areas using "kmem_cache_create" and using it to allocate some memory.

What I observe after some cache_alloc's and cache_free's is that /proc/slabinfo entries for my objects are good, meaning the number of objects go back to 0 after they are freed.

But linux "free" command shows that some of the objects are cached and that keeps on increasing. I am not able to understand this behavior. Is it that kernel keeps the cache objects even after they are freed?

#cat /proc/slabinfo
my_cache 200 200 4096 1 1 : tunables 24 12 8 : slabdata 200 200 0

It shows 200 allocated objects from "my_cache"

and

#free -lm

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 48340 610 47730 0 96 130

the cached objects keep on growing.

After 5 mins in which I am doing some alloc and free-
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 48340 616 47723 0 96 137

/proc/slabinfo remains the same.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Prashant
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