Re: Overcommittable memory

From: James Sutherland (jas88@cam.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Mar 20 2000 - 08:46:43 EST


On Mon, 20 Mar 2000 09:31:29 +0100, you wrote:

>> >catastrophic when it hits. It is much easier to write applications
>> >which are robust about memory allocation in a non-overcommit environment.
>>
>> Not really; remember, the stack is also demand-allocated.
>>
>Writing robust code isn't that hard - you know very well when a C
>program
>uses stack (function calls, local variables)
>
>Write the program without recursion and you know at compile-time how
>much memory it will ever need in the worst case.
>There is always at least one page - so make sure you use less than that.
>You'll need to know the stack overhead of any c-library you use - so
>don't use it or figure it out. It is doable with open-source libraries.

TBH, I don't see the point. I know I have more than enough RAM to
handle most cases, and some extra swap for contingencies.

If I do run out of VM, I just need to run fewer jobs at once, or add
another chunk of swap. No big deal.

James.

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