Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock [LWN.net]
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Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock
[Posted September 28, 2004 by corbet]
From :<br>Andries Brouwer<br>To :<br>Thomas Habets<br>Subject :<br>Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock<br>Date :<br>Fri, 24 Sep 2004 01:45:20 +0200<br>Cc :<br>linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org
On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 01:23:08AM +0200, Thomas Habets wrote:
> How about a sysctl that does "for the love of kbaek, don't ever kill these<br>> processes when OOM. If nothing else can be killed, I'd rather you panic"?
An aircraft company discovered that it was cheaper to fly its planes<br>with less fuel on board. The planes would be lighter and use less fuel<br>and money was saved. On rare occasions however the amount of fuel was<br>insufficient, and the plane would crash. This problem was solved by<br>the engineers of the company by the development of a special OOF<br>(out-of-fuel) mechanism. In emergency cases a passenger was selected<br>and thrown out of the plane. (When necessary, the procedure was<br>repeated.) A large body of theory was developed and many publications<br>were devoted to the problem of properly selecting the victim to be<br>ejected. Should the victim be chosen at random? Or should one choose<br>the heaviest person? Or the oldest? Should passengers pay in order not<br>to be ejected, so that the victim would be the poorest on board? And<br>if for example the heaviest person was chosen, should there be a<br>special exception in case that was the pilot? Should first class<br>passengers be exempted? Now that the OOF mechanism existed, it would<br>be activated every now and then, and eject passengers even when there<br>was no fuel shortage. The engineers are still studying precisely how<br>this malfunction is caused.<br>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in<br>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org<br>More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html<br>Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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