Re: Resource limits

From: Al Boldi
Date: Mon Sep 26 2005 - 12:35:50 EST


Neil Horman wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2005 at 05:18:17PM +0300, Al Boldi wrote:
> > Rik van Riel wrote:
> > > On Sun, 25 Sep 2005, Al Boldi wrote:
> > > > Resource limits in Linux, when available, are currently very
> > > > limited.
> > > >
> > > > i.e.:
> > > > Too many process forks and your system may crash.
> > > > This can be capped with threads-max, but may lead you into a
> > > > lock-out.
> > > >
> > > > What is needed is a soft, hard, and a special emergency limit that
> > > > would allow you to use the resource for a limited time to circumvent
> > > > a lock-out.
> > > >
> > > > Would this be difficult to implement?
> > >
> > > How would you reclaim the resource after that limited time is
> > > over ? Kill processes?
> >
> > That's one way, but really, the issue needs some deep thought.
> > Leaving Linux exposed to a lock-out is rather frightening.
>
> What exactly is it that you're worried about here? Do you have a
> particular concern that a process won't be able to fork or create a
> thread? Resources that can be allocated to user space processes always
> run the risk that their allocation will not succede. Its up to the
> application to deal with that.

Think about a DoS attack.

Thanks!

--
Al

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