From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Mar 10 15: 4:30 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail2.x-treme.gr (mail2.x-treme.gr [212.120.196.24]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4037837BAED for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 15:04:16 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from hades.hell.gr (pat13.x-treme.gr [212.120.197.205]) by mail2.x-treme.gr (8.9.3/8.9.3/IPNG-ADV-ANTISPAM-0.1) with SMTP id BAA23721 for ; Sat, 11 Mar 2000 01:04:08 +0200 Received: (qmail 82952 invoked by uid 1001); 10 Mar 2000 17:30:54 -0000 Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 19:30:54 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Elliot Finley Cc: Bhishan Hemrajani , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Code that crashes 3.4-Stable Message-ID: <20000310193054.D82572@hades.hell.gr> Reply-To: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr References: <200003100251.SAA05266@cytosine.dhs.org> <38c96656.29361402@mail.afnetinc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0i In-Reply-To: <38c96656.29361402@mail.afnetinc.com>; from lists@efinley.com on Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 03:09:55AM +0000 X-PGP-Fingerprint: 62 45 D1 C9 26 F9 95 06 D6 21 2A C8 8C 16 C0 8E X-Phone-Number: +30-94-6203692, +30-93-2886457 X-Address: Theodorou Kirinaiou 61, 26334 Patra, Greece Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 03:09:55AM +0000, Elliot Finley wrote: > > True, I could impose those limits, but the point is that the system > crashes when it starts to swap... Should this be the case? How > SHOULD FreeBSD handle this? > > In reality, I wouldn't WANT the system to swap, and if I was running > low on RAM, I would add more... But if I didn't catch it in time, I > would rather have the system take a BIG performance hit rather than > crash... It hasn't crashed, if I understood correctly what you wrote in your previous posting. It just takes ages to respond to you. The difference between a machine that has crashed and one that will wait for the next 50 years[1] or so before giving you attention, is a subtle one but altogether important. The ugly thing is that before waiting those 50 years, you don't know *if* the machine will ever respond to you, and that is not a problem with the OS, or the machine, but with the limits you have :) [1] The number 50 is chosen quite at random here, it might be less, or more! You never know ... -- Giorgos Keramidas, < keramida @ ceid . upatras . gr > For my public PGP key: finger keramida@diogenis.ceid.upatras.gr PGP fingerprint, phone and address in the headers of this message. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message