RE: [ft-devel] Regarding GTK/GNOME memory usage optimization

[Turner, David]

Hello Ian,

> [ Although I'm guessing you're probably aware of this, I figured I'd
>   point it out, just to make sure... ]
> 
> If you're on Linux, I'd suggest looking at Massif, part of 
> the Valgrind
> suite:
>          http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/docs-2.2.0/ms_main.html
>          http://valgrind.kde.org/tools.html
> 
> "Massif is a heap profiler. It performs detailed heap profiling by
>   taking regular snapshots of a program's heap. It produces a graph
>   showing heap usage over time, including information about 
> which parts
>   of the program are responsible for the most memory allocations. The
>   graph is supplemented by a text or HTML file that includes more
>   information for determining where the most memory is being 
> allocated.
>   Massif runs programs about 20x slower than normal. Massif was
>   introduced in version 2.1.1 of Valgrind."
> 
> Although it is very new (ie It's still kindof raw), it seem to work
> well, and I've used it numerous times, but usually in small, focused
> test programs, where you want to examine a couple of discrete 
> facets of
> your program.  I couldn't imaging trying to profile the 
> entire KDE/GNOME
> desktop at once... (YMMV though...)
> 

I know about massif; however, I'm looking at a way to measure the total
footprint of a KDE/GNOME desktop. In theory, this shouldn't be hard if
you disconnect your PC from the network.

In practice, I cannot get a constant memory usage number, it changes by
+/- 300 Kb on each reboot ! This is not about KDE/GNOME, the thing
happens even when I stop at the KDM/GDM screen. I should try that in
text-only mode.

I also performed an interesting experiment yesterday:

  - boot Linux in my LifeBook S4546 laptop, no network connection.
    => at the login screen, Alt-F1, login as root and run 'free'.
    memory usage is about 25 Mb. ->login to KDE => usage jumps to 73 Mb

  - take the same disk and put it in my (relatively new) LifeBook S6120
    laptop, still no network connection (and wifi/bluetooh disconnected).
    => at the login screen usage is 56 Mb !!, at KDE startup => 95 Mb.

by the way, same resolution in both cases. both machines have 256 Mb.

I don't know what's happenning; maybe the Intel Extreme
Graphics card is eating system memory a bit too greedily,
compared to the "old-school" 4 Mb ATI Rage mobility ?

Regards,

- David Turner
- The FreeType Project  (www.freetype.org)

PS: By the way, kcachegrind is also a really useful thing to be used with
    Valgrind.


> [ And it's free!  :-> ]
> 
> Ian
>