The C12 realization and the 0041 spec claimed streaming residency is O(one chunk) at the process level ("a 20-year window streams in the same memory as a one-day one"). That holds only for the aura source ring (M1FieldSource::resident_records(), bounded by one chunk and correctly tested); whole-process RSS grows O(records-touched) because data-server's FileCache retains each window's parsed chunks (~56 B/record) read-only for the pass. Reproduced: 6 MiB @ 1mo -> 173 MiB @ ~10y, linear.
That retention is the replay-many optimization (load-once; close+volume share one parse via the field-agnostic FileKey), not a leak, and no always-on eviction can bound a single forward pass without regressing it. This narrows the docs/comments to the true per-source-ring property and names the FileCache per-window retention as the real, replay-amortized process cost. The streaming_seam assert is unchanged (it was always the ring bound; only its labelling confused ring vs process). The deferred opt-in non-retaining streaming read path is parked as Brummel/data-server#2.
closes#95
Brummel
0d7c2c16f4