Messages in this thread | | | From | jlnance@unity ... | Date | Fri, 13 Jun 2003 06:21:39 -0400 | Subject | Re: limit resident memory size |
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On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 03:15:13PM -0700, David Schwartz wrote: > > > I would like to limit the maximum resident memory size > > of a process within a threshold, i.e. if its virtual > > memory footprint exceeds this threshold, it needs to > > swap out pages *only* from within its VM space. > > Why? If you think this is a good way to be nice to other > processes, you're wrong.
I have to disagree. I used to use a Digital Unix system, which had this feature, to do software development. The program I was working on was large, and linking it required more memory than the 128M that was installed on the computer. All my makes ended with a 10 minute swap storm during which the computer was virtually useless.
I discovered that if I limited the RSS of the link process so that it left a few megs of memory free then I could read mail or look around the web while the link was running. This of course slowed down the link, but I was supprised by how little it suffered. It might have been 10% slower and the tradeoff I got was to be able to use the machine while it was working rather than sitting there looking at it.
Thanks,
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