Hey Maxim,

Thanks again! I was a little confused at first because your tests in freebsd were so much different than mine but then I found what you did wrong.

You were testing the 2nd reload but the issue can only be seen on the first reload. Here is my test to show what I mean.
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root@freebsd:~ # service nginx restart; sleep 10; ps aux | grep -v grep | grep nginx ; top | grep Mem
root 864 0.0 5.4 121796 110344 - Ss 10:02 0:00.00 nginx: master process /usr/local/s
www 865 0.0 5.4 121796 110348 - S 10:02 0:00.00 nginx: worker process (nginx)
Mem: 116M Active, 2808K Inact, 87M Wired, 42M Buf, 1750M Free

root@freebsd:~ # service nginx reload ; sleep 10 ; ps aux | grep -v grep | grep nginx ; top | grep Mem
root 864 0.0 10.2 219844 209392 - Ss 10:02 0:00.45 nginx: master process /usr/local/s
www 881 0.0 10.2 219844 209388 - S 10:03 0:00.01 nginx: worker process (nginx)
Mem: 213M Active, 7652K Inact, 88M Wired, 42M Buf, 1646M Free

root@freebsd:~ # service nginx reload ; sleep 10 ; ps aux | grep -v grep | grep nginx ; top | grep Mem
root 864 0.0 11.4 242920 234400 - Ss 10:02 0:00.91 nginx: master process /usr/local/
www 898 0.0 11.4 242920 234400 - S 10:07 0:00.01 nginx: worker process (nginx)
Mem: 239M Active, 82M Inact, 89M Wired, 42M Buf, 1546M Free
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Notice that my 2nd reload looks just like your test. But compare the restart test to the 1st reload and you'll see what I mean. Active ram doubles, it's not in inactive, and the free ram also went down by the same amount that active ram increased.

I bet if you run that same test on your server you'll see the same thing that I do. Can you run that test and send me the results? I'm sure you know this but make sure that the reload is complete before you check the ram usage or you'll get misleading results. :)

Thanks!