Re: [patch 2.6.13-rc6] docs: fix misinformation aboutovercommit_memory

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Fri Aug 19 2005 - 22:26:16 EST


Chuck Ebbert <76306.1226@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> +Controls overcommit of system memory:

It should explain what "overcommit" is.

> +
> +0 - Heuristic overcommit handling. Obvious overcommits of
> + address space are refused. Used for a typical system. It
> + ensures a seriously wild allocation fails while allowing
> + overcommit to reduce swap usage. root is allowed to
> + allocate slighly more memory in this mode. This is the
> + default.
> +
> +1 - Always overcommit. Appropriate for some scientific
> + applications.
> +
> +2 - Don't overcommit. The total address space commit
> + for the system is not permitted to exceed swap + a
> + configurable percentage (default is 50) of physical RAM.

Configurable how?

> + Depending on the percentage you use, in most situations
> + this means a process will not be killed while accessing
> + pages but will receive errors on memory allocation as
> + appropriate.
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