Because you can echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches but sudo echo 3 >... | Hacker News

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pdw on Feb 4, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Facebook hit git performance issue on large reposi...

Because you can

    echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

but

    sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

won't work.

julian37 on Feb 4, 2012 | [–]

Right, that's what I was missing. That makes sense, and come to think about it, is a very useful addition to my toolbox. Thanks pdw and jochu!

tmhedberg on Feb 4, 2012 | [–]

You can also accomplish the same thing with:

    sudo sysctl -w vm.drop_caches=3

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