GNU tar : Memory problem

[Marc-henri PAMISEUX]

Hello,

We discover recently that our development server is out of memory.
It is a PII-450 server running linux.
I did a cron shell that is using GNU tar 1.13.11 for backup our development
directory on a tgz file.
The used command is : tar -zcvf directory.tar.gz /directory
I did a top during the cron execution and i realised that the tar command
was using all the system memory.
OK i said, at the end of the script, the used memory will be free.
The tar and gzip process down, the system memory was still full, and the
swap space too...
So, i did a shutdown, and then i executed the top command for a new time.
My system was OK, was near 80% of his free memory, and wasn't swapping.
I modified the hour of the cron job, and i was waiting for his execution;
No, not so long...
Still running top, at the tar and gzip time execution, i see the system
memory growing and growing to the end of the system memory range (512 Mb),
and begining to swap. The strange fact was that tar and gzip process where
near 0% of memory used.
Theses process ended, system memory was still full !
I think there is a pile's remove problem.
Maybe this problem has ever been discovered, but i didn't find it anywhere.

Can you inform me on this subject.
Sorry for this frenchy syntax...

Thanks for everything you do.
Best regards,

Marc-Henri PAMISEUX
Administrateur Systèmes et Réseaux
address@hidden

CLG
34 Avenue des Champs Elysées
75008 Paris
Tel : +33.1.45.74.98.30