From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 14 Feb 2002 09:56:38 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 14 Feb 2002 09:56:28 -0500 Received: from tomcat.admin.navo.hpc.mil ([204.222.179.33]:50120 "EHLO tomcat.admin.navo.hpc.mil") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Thu, 14 Feb 2002 09:56:13 -0500 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 08:56:10 -0600 (CST) From: Jesse Pollard Message-Id: <200202141456.IAA24921@tomcat.admin.navo.hpc.mil> To: mtoseland@cableinet.co.uk, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Fun with OOM on 2.4.18-pre9 X-Mailer: [XMailTool v3.1.2b] Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org toad : > > I do a make -j bzImage > I have 2 large processes (Kaffe) running in the background. They are > driven by scripts like this: > > while true; > do su freenet -c java freenet.node.Main; > done > > I have 512MB of RAM and no swap on 2.4.18-pre9. > Kernel eventually slows to a near complete halt, and starts killing > processes. > It kills Kaffe several times > Out of Memory: Killed process xyz (Kaffe) > (no I don't have logs, sorry) > Each time it's a different pid, having respawned from its parent > process. Then later, it apparently becomes unkillable - each time it > respawns it is *the same PID*. VT switching works, but otherwise the > system is unresponsive. It is not clear whether the make -j is still > running. Immediately before this, it did the same thing with dictd, but > eventually got around to Kaffe. After a fairly long wait I rebooted with > the reset switch. > > Any more information useful? Is this known behaviour? Known behaviour - ie. don't do that. On most systems a "make -j4", or 6, or even 8 will work. But SOMETHING has to give after memory fills up. The number of processes to use for -j depends on the system. On mine (256MB, dual pentium pro) I don't do more than 6, and 4 works best (lets me run solitare too). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jesse I Pollard, II Email: pollard@navo.hpc.mil Any opinions expressed are solely my own.