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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!usenet.coe.montana.edu!bsd.coe.montana.edu!nate From: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: Disk Thrashing question Date: 28 Sep 1993 06:47:19 GMT Organization: Montana Stateu University, Bozeman MT Lines: 37 Message-ID: <288mln$f82@pdq.coe.montana.edu> References: <1993Sep27.170443.444@doug.cae.wisc.edu> <2884k2$d9k@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <rich.749200452@isr0004.urh.uiuc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: bsd.coe.montana.edu In article <rich.749200452@isr0004.urh.uiuc.edu>, Rich <rich@isr0004.urh.uiuc.edu> wrote: I write: >>I am mildly suprised that Linux handles running out of memory better, >>especially after hearing some of the horror stories that happen when >>Linux runs out of memory. I suppose it's possible that you are also >>running out of swap space. A way to check that is to run swapinfo in >>another xterm when you start up emacs, and see what state your system is >>in. > >Horror stories? I dont think it is considered a horror story when your >machine decides to reboot when it is out of memory.. at least it's over >in a minute or two and you can get on with your work, rather than a hang >which you have to leave there for a while to see if it is going to recover. Most people would consider that unacceptable behavior. "'Scuse me, I'm sorry your process had been running for 3 weeks and only have 1 hour left to do, but we ran out of memory and the machine reboot." Basically all of the work was wasted up to that point. Besides, the horror I was referring to have to do with disk corruption (having two files with the exact same file name). Why do you think Linus implemented the new memory scheme where Linux actually says "I'm out of memory"? It is a well known fact that shared library implementation in Linux allows the machine to work better under lower memory constraints, and the BSD folks are working on getting a shared library scheme in place. But flaming other developers does nothing other than get everyone's feathers ruffled and does nothing to encourage free *nices, which I believe should be the goal, not to fight each other. Nate -- nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu | Freely available *nix clones benefit everyone, nate@cs.montana.edu | so let's not compete with each other, let's work #: (406) 994-4836 | compete with folks who try to tie us down to home #: (406) 586-0579 | proprietary O.S.'s (Microsloth) - Me