How Linux Manages Memory: An In-Depth Overview
Linux uses a sophisticated memory management system to ensure efficient use of system resources. It abstracts physical memory through virtual memory, providing processes with isolated memory spaces, ensuring stability, and optimizing resource usage. Here’s a detailed look at how Linux manages memory: 1. Virtual Memory and Paging Linux uses virtual memory to provide each process with its own address space, which makes it appear as though the process has access to more memory than is physically available. The kernel uses a technique called paging to divide the memory into small, fixed-size blocks called pages . When a process accesses memory that isn't currently in physical RAM, a page fault occurs, prompting the kernel to load the necessary page from the swap space or disk. This system allows the operating system to run more processes than can fit in physical memory alone. 2. Page Tables The kernel maintains page tables that map virtual addresses to physical addresses. Each proc...