2.4 kernel series and the oom_killer and /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory

[Marc-Christian Petersen <m.c.p@gmx.net>]

Hi there,

I just have one question.

If I understand it correct, /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory controls if there 
is "1" always enough memory and if "0" every program call checks if there is 
enough memory.

I just tried to open up much Xterms until my RAM + SWAP is full. The system is 
up and response is slowly for ~ 5 minutes, doing whatever, swapping or kinda 
that. This was tested with overcommit_memory == 0 ... With 2.4.19, the 
oom_killer comes NOT in action, after the 5 minutes the system is dead. With 
2.4.18's oom_killer there are program kills at random.

My question now: Why isn't it possible, if overcommit_memory is 0, to really 
check if there is enough memory or not, and if NOT just to display a message 
like "Not enough memory for execution. Aborted" ?

TIA!

-- 
Kind regards
        Marc-Christian Petersen

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wolk

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