From owner-freebsd-current Fri Apr 24 13:43:59 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA25310 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Fri, 24 Apr 1998 13:43:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ns1.yes.no (ns1.yes.no [195.119.24.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA25303 for ; Fri, 24 Apr 1998 13:43:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from eivind@bitbox.follo.net) Received: from bitbox.follo.net (bitbox.follo.net [194.198.43.36]) by ns1.yes.no (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA06495 for ; Fri, 24 Apr 1998 20:43:48 GMT Received: (from eivind@localhost) by bitbox.follo.net (8.8.8/8.8.6) id WAA08583; Fri, 24 Apr 1998 22:43:47 +0200 (MET DST) Message-ID: <19980424224346.35645@follo.net> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 22:43:46 +0200 From: Eivind Eklund To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: sysctl from Linux (*envy*) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.89.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG overcommit_memory: This file contains only one value. The following algorithm is used to decide if there's enough memory. If the value of overcommit_memory > 0, then there's always enough memory :-). This is a useful feature, since programs often malloc() huge amounts of memory 'just in case', while they only use a small part of it. Leaving this value at 0 will lead to the failure of such a huge malloc(), when in fact the system has enough memory for the program to run... On the other hand, enabling this feature can cause you to run out of memory and thrash the system to death, so large and/or important servers will want to set this value to 0. This supposedly also handles things like fork() etc. Linux shouldn't have any server-directed features FreeBSD doesn't! Eivind. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message