From owner-freebsd-current Mon Jan 18 13:51:28 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA17602 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Mon, 18 Jan 1999 13:51:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from hda.hda.com (hda-bicnet.bicnet.net [209.244.238.132] (may be forged)) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA17588 for ; Mon, 18 Jan 1999 13:51:18 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dufault@hda.hda.com) Received: (from dufault@localhost) by hda.hda.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA09337; Mon, 18 Jan 1999 16:44:45 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Dufault Message-Id: <199901182144.QAA09337@hda.hda.com> Subject: Re: kernel malloc and M_CANWAIT In-Reply-To: <199901182105.NAA18722@dingo.cdrom.com> from Mike Smith at "Jan 18, 99 01:05:24 pm" To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 16:44:45 -0500 (EST) Cc: julian@whistle.com, dillon@apollo.backplane.com, green@unixhelp.org, mike@smith.net.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL25 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > why not just put it in a loop and block on lbolt? > > (or call panic) > > Because you shouldn't panic unless there's no alternative. Panicking > on resource starvation is just totally lame. We haven't used up the kernel name space yet. This sort of fundamental change should be enabled by a new flag and then added when handled. Changing things to return NULL pointers in the kernel where they never were before is equally lame. Without the appropriate work you're just pushing the panic off to a hard to find location. Peter -- Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com) Realtime development, Machine control, HD Associates, Inc. Safety critical systems, Agency approval To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message