Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 25 Nov 2003 15:17:28 -0500 (EST) | From | "Richard B. Johnson" <> | Subject | Re: 2.2/2.4/2.6 VMs: do malloc() ever return NULL? |
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On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, Ihar 'Philips' Filipau wrote:
As documented, malloc() will never fail as long as there is still address space (not memory) available. This is the required nature of the over-commit strategy. This is necessary because many programs never even touch all the memory they allocate.
You can turn OFF over-commit by doing:
echo "2" >proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
However, you will probably find that many programs fail or seg-fault when normally they wouldn't. So, if you don't mind restarting sendmail occasionally, then turn off over-commit.
Cheers, Dick Johnson Penguin : Linux version 2.4.22 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips). Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.
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