From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 22 06:54:24 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AF0B106568F for ; Fri, 22 May 2009 06:54:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from j.mckeown@ru.ac.za) Received: from a.mail.ru.ac.za (a.mail.ru.ac.za [IPv6:2001:4200:1010::25:1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FC388FC2A for ; Fri, 22 May 2009 06:54:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from j.mckeown@ru.ac.za) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=ru-msa; d=ru.ac.za; h=Received:From:Organization:To:Subject:Date:User-Agent:References:In-Reply-To:X-Face:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Disposition:Message-Id:X-Virus-Scanned:X-Authenticated-User; b=o2/KQMl1Bk05W6GxpuC99npLRBuwLoS+Yq7TEvwuixTzDqYD9BF7m6F0qzR/16RfR3E2xlmLiVApfk1mSgVccHYGaFzwlxgMO19a4O++8mRl2xk0AROyXbxldcjXbIgB; Received: from vorkosigan.ru.ac.za ([2001:4200:1010:1058:219:d1ff:fe9f:a932]:52492) by a.mail.ru.ac.za with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1M7Oe6-00052k-5g for freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org; Fri, 22 May 2009 08:54:22 +0200 From: Jonathan McKeown Organization: Rhodes University To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 08:54:21 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.10 References: <4A14F58F.8000801@rawbw.com> <4A1594DA.2010707@rawbw.com> In-Reply-To: X-Face: $@VrUx^RHy/}yu]jKf/<4T%/d|F+$j-Ol2"2J$q+%OK1]&/G_S9(=?utf-8?q?HkaQ*=60!=3FYOK=3FY!=27M=60C=0A=09aP=5C9nVPF8Q=7DCilHH8l=3B=7E!4?= =?utf-8?q?2HK6=273lg4J=7Daz?=@1Dqqh:J]M^"YPn*2IWrZON$1+G?oX3@ =?utf-8?q?k=230=0A=0954XDRg=3DYn=5FF-etwot4U=24b?=dTS{i X-Virus-Scanned: a.mail.ru.ac.za (2001:4200:1010::25:1) X-Authenticated-User: s0900137 from vorkosigan.ru.ac.za (2001:4200:1010:1058:219:d1ff:fe9f:a932) using auth_plaintext Subject: Re: Why kernel kills processes that run out of memory instead of just failing memory allocation system calls? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 06:54:25 -0000 On Thursday 21 May 2009 23:37:20 Nate Eldredge wrote: > Of course all these problems are solved, under any policy, by having more > memory or swap. =A0But overcommit allows you to do more with less. Or to put it another way, 90% of the problems that could be solved by havin= g=20 more memory can also be solved by pretending you have more memory and hopin= g=20 no-one calls your bluff. Jonathan