From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Fri Feb 25 13:56:27 2005
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1663416A4CE
	for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>;
	Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:56:27 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net
	[69.17.117.24])	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73A0E43D39
	for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>;
	Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:56:25 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org)
Received: (qmail 27316 invoked from network); 25 Feb 2005 13:56:25 -0000
Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org)
	([66.92.78.145])
	(envelope-sender <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>)
	by mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP
	for <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>; 25 Feb 2005 13:56:25 -0000
Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147)
	id BAC9381; Fri, 25 Feb 2005 08:56:24 -0500 (EST)
Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org
To: "Ramiro Aceves" <ea1abz@wanadoo.es>
References: <003801c51b2b$1deecc60$04cf589d@simula.eis.uva.es>
From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
Date: 25 Feb 2005 08:56:24 -0500
In-Reply-To: <003801c51b2b$1deecc60$04cf589d@simula.eis.uva.es>
Message-ID: <44r7j4vj3r.fsf@be-well.ilk.org>
Lines: 29
User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: I killed my system with grep
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
Reply-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:56:27 -0000

"Ramiro Aceves" <ea1abz@wanadoo.es> writes:

> Hello FreeBSD friends:
> 
> I am running a FreeBSD 5.3 system with 64MB RAM and 150 MB swap.
> 
> Yesterday I entered the command:
> 
> # grep -R something /
> 
> and after a while, my system did not respond. I do not remember the exact
> messages as I am on a winbugs at the University. The error was about
> swapping. I could switch among terminals but the system was dead. I needed
> to reboot.
> 
> I rebooted and tried again watching "top" output and I could see as swap
> usage was incresing very quickly until it ran out of swap space and the swap
> pager failed.
> 
> Was my sytem dead? or, is it possible to recover from that state without
> rebooting? How is it possible that a simple command like this could
> auto-kill the machine?
> 
> What is the recomended fix for this?:
> 
> a- Asigning more swap.
> b- Not executing that command anymore.

c- Setting user limits in login.conf(5).