"Daniel C. Sobral" <d...@newsguy.com> wrote: > > > OTOH, though, FreeBSD's malloc() is very unlikely to return an out > > > of memory error. > > > > Why is that? > > Because memory (as in *real* memory, either RAM or swap) is > allocated on-demand. So you can allocate any amount of virtual > memory that the system can possibly provide you, even though you'll > run out of memory much earlier, because other resources are also > consuming it.
Yuck. That's a complete abomination. What's the point of it? It's turning an out-of-memory situation from an easily-detected recoverable temporary resource shortage which can be worked-around or waited out, into an unrecoverable fatal error. Do a significant number of programs really request memory which they then proceed not to use? > > What happens if the process hits its resource limits? > > If the system runs out of memory, the biggest process is killed. It > might or might not be the one demanding additional memory. No, if the *process* hits its *administrative* resource limits. i.e. setrlimit(2). Cheers Jon -- \/ Jon Ribbens / j...@oaktree.co.uk To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
