Managing least recently used cache using reduced memory footprint sequence container

Abstract

Techniques are provided for managing a least recently used cache using a linked list with a reduced memory footprint. A cache manager receives an I/O request comprising a target address, wherein the cache manager manages a cache memory having a maximum allocated amount of cache entries, and a linked list having a maximum allocated amount of list elements which is less than the maximum allocated amount of cache entries. If the target address does correspond to a cache entry, the cache manager accesses the cache entry to obtain the cache data from cache memory, removes a list element from the linked list, which corresponds to the accessed cache entry, selects an existing cache entry which currently does not have a corresponding list element in the linked list, and adds a list element to a head position of the linked list which corresponds to the selected cache entry.