curr_items never decreases

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Brian Moon wrote:
> Just Marc wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm using memcached 1.1.12 from Debian unstable, and it seems that 
>> even though items do expire (verified by seeing that they are no 
>> longer available after the timeout via mc_get), curr_items doesn't 
>> decrease, ever.
> 
> 
> To make memcached a fast beast, it does lazy clean up (not sure of the 
> proper term).  That means, things are not removed just because they 
> expire.  They stay in the cache.  If asked for however, and they are 
> expired, they are not returned.  This makes for a much simpler, and 
> faster cache system.
> 
> IMO, the key metrics to watch when deciding if the cache is effective is 
> the hits and misses.  We have a hit/miss ratio of about 900:1.  After a 
> while, you learn not to worry about the number of items, size, etc.  As 
> long as you have a good hit/miss ratio things are working well for you.
> 
> And, before you wonder, no, there is no current way to get a count of 
> unexpired items from the cache.
> 

Brian,

What is the best way to get hit/miss stats? Are these stored in the 
server and retrievable through the stats interface? We use the Perl API.

Thanks,
   -Steve