lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2011]   [Feb]   [9]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
From
SubjectRe: [golang-dev] Re: mmap, the language go, problems with the linux kernel
Date
"Ted Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu> writes:

> Linux has interpreted it to mean "virtual address space", and in fact
> it's documented as such in the its version of the getrlimit man page.
> I'd have to agree with Linus that it's probably way too late to change
> what it means (or what Linux thinks it means, anyway).

I don't think anybody seriously expects Linux to change the meaning of
ulimit -v at this point. Obviously Go is going to do something
different here.

However, I think it's still worth pointing out that while ulimit -v no
doubt has specialized applications, it does not do exactly what I think
most people want. I think most people want some way to say "do not let
this program cause my machine to start thrashing." That's what I use
ulimit -v for; if I don't, a program which accidentally allocates memory
in an endless loop starts thrashing. But I don't actually care how much
virtual memory the program is using; what I care about is limiting the
amount of physical memory it is using, so that it doesn't take over my
machine.

I think that would be a useful feature to implement regardless of how we
feel about ulimit -v and Go. I think we can reasonably expect more and
more programs to try to advantage of large virtual address spaces. Lets
have a way to use them while still having a way to keep them from
thrashing.

Ian


\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2011-02-09 20:59    [W:0.643 / U:0.340 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site