0 means overcommit is enabled. You want to set it to something other
than 0 to prevent overcommitting and the consequent suprising process
deaths. Exactly what other values are accepted varies, but 0 isn't the
one for you.
I do not understand how 0 could mean overcommit is enabled. I do not
know how it is in recent kernels, but the source code of the 2.4 kernel
I use is this:
int vm_enough_memory(long pages)
{
unsigned long free;
/* Sometimes we want to use more memory than we have. */
if (sysctl_overcommit_memory)
return 1;
// ...
}
seems pretty straightforward to me.
I also did a recursive grep through all of the kernel source and this is
the only place where this parameter is used.
I tried setting the parameter to 1, but it did not make any difference.
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TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
