[techtalk] Tar memory issue?

[Brian Sweeney]

Hello all,

Has anyone had memory problems with tar?  I've noticed that when creating a
decent size tar file (750M) that includes a whole BUNCH of files linux runs
really low on memory, and it doesn't seem to come back.

For instance, I ran a top on a computer, and it had approximately 68Meg
"free".  During the tar process, I kept the top going, and the memory stayed
steady for a while, then the free memory suddenly went down to about 2Meg,
popped back up to about 3, and stayed there.  Even after tar finished, the
box kept claiming it only had 3M memory free, even though a top showed the
running processes were not eating that much.

I didn't notice any performance issues, though I haven't thoroughly tested
it yet.  I looked on google and redhat, but didn't find anything.  I also
tried to use memprof for the first time, and that, near as I can tell did
nothing except generate seg faults ;P.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions...?

-Brian