linux-kernel - Re: Misleading OOM messages

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Date:	Thu, 14 May 2009 11:29:09 +0200
From:	Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>
To:	Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...e.de>,
	Nick Piggin <npiggin@...e.de>, Mel Gorman <mel@....ul.ie>,
	Peter Ziljstra <a.p.ziljstra@...llo.nl>,
	Dave Hansen <dave@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	San Mehat <san@...roid.com>, Arve Hj?nnev?g <arve@...roid.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Misleading OOM messages

Hi!

> While we are at it: Could we get rid of the name "Out of Memory" and stop
> printing texts to that effect? What we call an OOM is a failure to
> perform memory reclaim or we are running out of reserves due
> to not being able to run reclaim. Mostly this is due to OS internal issues
> having nothing to do actual amounts of memory available.

It can be 'low on memory' if you play with mlock() a bit. 

It is out of memory if you run out of swap (or have no swap to begin with).

I believe message is often correct. What message would you suggest?
									Pavel
-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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