I'm attempting to run a Python script that requires a lot of Virtual Memory. I'm on Linux Mint 17.3 64 bit and Python 2.7.
As the Python process grows, I can see (using free -m) the amount of RAM use increase, but the amount of swap space used actually appears to be decreasing.
I tried changing vm.swappiness from 60 to 90, but that doesn't appear to have helped.
It's not a matter of the swap space being totally unused - some of it is in use. But it's not being used as much as it probably should be.
BTW, I'm in a VMWare instance.
How can I run this large process without a MemoryError, and without changing the code?
Thanks!
PS: Here's some free -m output:
$ while : ; do free -m; date; echo; sleep 10; done
cmd output started 2016 Fri Aug 19 08:47:39 AM PDT
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7968 4764 3203 31 215 335
-/+ buffers/cache: 4214 3754
Swap: 8189 3452 4737
Fri Aug 19 08:47:39 PDT 2016
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7968 4880 3087 31 215 343
-/+ buffers/cache: 4321 3646
Swap: 8189 3451 4738
Fri Aug 19 08:47:49 PDT 2016
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7968 4982 2985 31 215 343
-/+ buffers/cache: 4423 3544
Swap: 8189 3449 4740
Fri Aug 19 08:47:59 PDT 2016