From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758822AbZERJt2 (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 May 2009 05:49:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1757976AbZERJem (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 May 2009 05:34:42 -0400 Received: from earthlight.etchedpixels.co.uk ([81.2.110.250]:57502 "EHLO www.etchedpixels.co.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757994AbZERJel (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 May 2009 05:34:41 -0400 Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 10:35:45 +0100 From: Alan Cox To: Andrea Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: super root shell/mode/api Message-ID: <20090518103545.6603b08e@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> In-Reply-To: <861928.62033.qm@web23602.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <861928.62033.qm@web23602.mail.ird.yahoo.com> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.0 (GTK+ 2.14.7; x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Some days ago I've lost some important data on a Linux > machine, because of an out of memory and swap situation. > > When I was coding on c-64 and it crashes I pressed my > Cartridge button and could save what I wanted, execute > code and so on. Some may remember this old school times :) > > Now 20 years has passed and a web page can block my whole > machine?!?!?!? Your distribution failed to configure your system sensibly in that case. Linux has supported a strict overcommit mode for some years, and in that mode a process isn't permitted to drive the system so far out of memory it locks up or hangs. You can also set some limits on a given process (which with certain versions of firefox - especially old ones or if you have the flash plugin is a good idea). First call - ask your distribution why it isn't using strict overcommit.