What really kills [:-)] me is that they allocate memory assuming I will not be using it all, then terminate the executable in an unrecoverable way when I go to use the memory.
And, they make a judgement on users who don't want this by calling them "paranoid". I will add something to the docs about this. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Lane wrote: > Jon Lapham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Just curious. What would a rationally designed OS do in an out of > > memory situation? > > Fail malloc() requests. > > The sysctl docs that Andrew Dunstan just provided give some insight into > the problem: the default behavior of Linux is to promise more virtual > memory than it can actually deliver. That is, it allows malloc to > succeed even when it's not going to be able to actually provide the > address space when push comes to shove. When called to stand and > deliver, the kernel has no way to report failure (other than perhaps a > software-induced SIGSEGV, which would hardly be an improvement). So it > kills the process instead. Unfortunately, the process that happens to > be in the line of fire at this point could be any process, not only the > one that made unreasonable memory demands. > > This is perhaps an okay behavior for desktop systems being run by > people who are accustomed to Microsoft-like reliability. But to make it > the default is brain-dead, and to make it the only available behavior > (as seems to have been true until very recently) defies belief. The > setting now called "paranoid overcommit" is IMHO the *only* acceptable > one for any sort of server system. With anything else, you risk having > critical userspace daemons killed through no fault of their own. > > regards, tom lane > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? > > http://archives.postgresql.org > -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us [EMAIL PROTECTED] | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])
