Re: super root shell/mode/api

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
2009-05-18T16:14:15Z

On Mon, 18 May 2009, Alan Cox wrote:
> Your distribution failed to configure your system sensibly in that case.
> Linux has supported a strict overcommit mode for some years, and in that
> mode a process isn't permitted to drive the system so far out of memory
> it locks up or hangs.

Err... strict overcommit is vm.overcommit_memory=2, right? That means no
overcommit at all (as far as the documentation goes, anyway).

Which distros enable that by default?

> You can also set some limits on a given process (which with certain
> versions of firefox - especially old ones or if you have the flash plugin
> is a good idea).

Indeed. Or just limit the users, so that root always has room to work.

--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh