Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 23 Mar 2001 00:27:52 +0100 | From | Guest section DW <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] Prevent OOM from killing init |
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On Thu, Mar 22, 2001 at 10:52:09PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > You see, the bug is that malloc does not fail. This means that the > > decisions about what to do are not taken by the program that knows > > what it is doing, but by the kernel.
> Even if malloc fails the situation is no different.
Why do you say so?
> You can do overcommit avoidance in Linux if you are bored enough to try it.
Would you accept it as the default? Would Linus?
(With disk I/O we are terribly conservative, using very cautious settings, and many people use hdparm to double or triple their disk speed. But for a few these optimistic settings cause data corruption, so we do not make it the default. Similarly I would be happy if the "no overcommit", "no OOM killer" situation was the default. The people who need a reliable system will leave it that way. The people who do not mind if some process is killed once in a while use vmparm or /proc/vm/overcommit or so to make Linux achieve more on average.)
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