From: jlnance@unity.ncsu.edu
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 06:21:39 -0400
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: limit resident memory size
Message-ID: <20030613102139.GA769@ncsu.edu>
References: <20030612205557.5874.qmail@web40602.mail.yahoo.com> <MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKOEBMDKAA.davids@webmaster.com>
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On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 03:15:13PM -0700, David Schwartz wrote:
> 
> > I would like to limit the maximum resident memory size
> > of a process within a threshold, i.e. if its virtual
> > memory footprint exceeds this threshold, it needs to
> > swap out pages *only* from within its VM space.
> 
> 	Why? If you think this is a good way to be nice to other
>	processes, you're wrong.

I have to disagree.  I used to use a Digital Unix system, which had this
feature, to do software development.  The program I was working on was
large, and linking it required more memory than the 128M that was installed
on the computer.  All my makes ended with a 10 minute swap storm during
which the computer was virtually useless.

I discovered that if I limited the RSS of the link process so that it left
a few megs of memory free then I could read mail or look around the web
while the link was running.  This of course slowed down the link, but I
was supprised by how little it suffered.  It might have been 10% slower
and the tradeoff I got was to be able to use the machine while it was
working rather than sitting there looking at it.

Thanks,

Jim
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