Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 17:07:31 -0500 From: D J Hawkey Jr <hawkeyd@visi.com> To: steve@nomad.tor.lets.net, freebsd-security@freebsd.org Subject: Re: when mail full /tmp partition, system cracked Message-ID: <20010906170731.A18984@sheol.localdomain>
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In article <20010906152832.A44174_nomad.lets.net@ns.sol.net>, steve@nomad.tor.lets.net writes: > On Thu, Sep 06, 2001 at 10:45:47AM -0300, Fernando Schapachnik wrote: >> En un mensaje anterior, edwin chan escribi<F3>: >> > we found the messages in log: >> > >> > Sep 5 21:00:33 www /kernel: swap_pager: out of swap space >> > Sep 5 21:00:33 www /kernel: swap_pager_getswapspace: failed >> >> What might have happened is that a the great amount of email forked a >> great amount of processes which in turn ate all available memory and >> swap. Your machine ran out of swap. Either increase it (look at the >> FAQ & handbook for instructions) or add more memory. Or impose >> resource limits (can do it via login.conf and/or sendmail.cf >> -MaxDaemonChildren, RefuseLA, etc.-). > > What is supposed to happen is the largest process is supposed > to be killed if virtual memory is exhausted. There is a bug in > 4.3-RELEASE that prevents this from happening. The kernel hangs > before any processes get killed. Is "the largest process" selective, to some degree or another? That is, will it (can it?) discern a "more valuable" process from a "lesser one"? Can it be told to kill off the last process started, as opposed to the largest? I myself would find this preferable in many cases. > It has fixed in STABLE. No patch for the RELENG_4_3 tree in store, I take it? I browsed the CVS tree; is the fix contained entirely in vm_map.c? > -steve Dave -- Windows: "Where do you want to go today?" Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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