buffered memory grows

["Alex Kramarov" <alex incredimail com>]

Hi.

I have shifted from redhat 7.1 to 7.2, and have several machines running
both versions now. I have noticed, that the memory usage patern is very
different on machines using ext2 and ext3 - the ones using ext2 usually use
5-10 MB of "buff" memory, but the ones with ext3 grow to 50MB on machines
with 128MB, and to 250MB with on machine with 512 MB. I have conducted a
test, and changed /etc/fstab on the 7.2 machine to mount all partitions ext2
instead of ext3, and the "buff" memory is back to 5 MB, as with normal 7.1
linux.

Is it normal? Is there a reason for it ? And that exactly is "buff" memory -
i couldn't find good explanation. is it like cached memory, that get's freed
when you need it ?

Thank you.
Alex.