how to page_cache.max_percent?

hi,

the following scenario:

* kernel 2.4.9 smp
* machine with 6GB physical memory
* multiple processes are relying on a 3GB large data structure to be in memory (speed goes down the drain, when some pages are swapped out)
* not every page in this 3GB data structure is used all the time
* this data structure is loaded from files, so initially i end up having 3GB of used cache (visible in vmstat)

now i start another memory intense process and discover via vmstat the following sensible behaviour: pagecache shrinks slowly and memory from the 3GB structure is swapped out at a faster rate...

i don't care about the pagecache, i only care about having those 3GB in memory...

is there a way to set a maximum size for the pagecache (afaik, page_cache.max_percent is not used)?

or can i specify to always drain the pagecache before swapping out?

cheers,
-iowa

mlock()/mlockall().

Disable all swap. (ie swapoff -a)

-ben