Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> I'm seeing a background writer process in an 8.0.8 installation that uses 1.6
> GB of main memory, and ps shows that it has used an unreasonable amount of
> CPU time so far. It seems that the machine was under heavy load just before
> I got to it; maybe that is cause? Has anyone seen this sort of memory bloat
> on the background writer process?
Are you sure it's bloat, and not just a reflection of the fact that it's
touched every page of the shared buffers over its lifespan? Some OSes
(you did not say what this is) report a process' memory size as
including only those pages of shared memory it's touched.
regards, tom lane
