There is a new version of my memory logging script available. I haven’t changed it a lot yet and I certainly haven’t addressed all the feedback I was sent. The major change is that it now uses /proc/
Interestingly, the change from using RSS to using the sum of private dirty memory to determine the worst memory offenders barely made any difference to the ordering on my machine: Xorg swapped with epiphany for first place and that was about it. Xorg illustrates another way in which RSS lies; the RSS value for Xorg includes mappings of /dev/mem – things like the VGA frame buffer and the video ROM. i.e. hardware specific memory that no other process could use anyway.
The main reason the script hasn’t progressed further is the time I’ve spent trying to figure out how memory is divided up on a Linux system and what it all means (e.g. what is the vdso page – this page gives a fairly decent summary).
If you’re still reading this, you might also be interested in this post from Tomas Frydrych.