lkml.org 
[lkml]   [1997]   [May]   [12]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
From
SubjectRe: Out of memory kernel deat
Date
Mike Jagdis writes ...
>
> On Mon, 12 May 1997, Thomas Koenig wrote:
>
> > I'd propose a fairly simple solution: send a SIGURG signal to
> > whatever process has a signal handler for it installed.
> >
> > This process could then do whatever it wants to, such as allocating
> > more swap, killing off an errant process or send an E-Mail to
> > the admin to go out and buy more RAM.
> >
> > Policy is for userland.
>
> I seem to remember that AIX has a signal specifically for this
> situation (SIGDANGER?). I seem to remember that this came up
> last time the out of memory thread surfaced too.
>
> The bottom line is that there is no single algorithm, simple
> or complex, that will consistently pick a non-stupid process
> to kill for everyone.
>
> Might I suggest that SIGDANGER be introduced and used to warn
> everything that they damn well better try and sort themselves
> out? If things don't get better we can try killing things - perhaps
> starting with things that don't have a SIGDANGER handler, followed
> by things that didn't reduce their footprint in response to
> SIGDANGER?

AIX is a wonderful OS to bring up in this debate, and has been mentioned
several times before and IMO is an excellent example of what we should
*not* do.

SIGDANGER is essentially useless because it is AIX specific; >99% of
software ignores it so it gains you nothing. AIX then goes on to the
kill the largest process solution, which as several people have pointed
out from experience is a really bad solution. It is in fact on my list
of Top 10 Things I Dislike Most About AIX.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Hollebeek | Disclaimer :=> Everything above is a true statement,
Electron Psychologist | for sufficiently false values of true.
Princeton University | email: tim@wfn-shop.princeton.edu
----------------------| http://wfn-shop.princeton.edu/~tim (NEW! IMPROVED!)

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:39    [W:0.057 / U:0.600 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site