From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263429AbTDXSsg (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:48:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263810AbTDXSsg (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:48:36 -0400 Received: from hermine.idb.hist.no ([158.38.50.15]:57357 "HELO hermine.idb.hist.no") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S263429AbTDXSse (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:48:34 -0400 Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:02:48 +0200 To: Timothy Miller Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: Strange behavior in out-of-memory situation Message-ID: <20030424190248.GA2766@hh.idb.hist.no> References: <3EA83396.4040904@techsource.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3EA83396.4040904@techsource.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.3i From: Helge Hafting Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Apr 24, 2003 at 02:57:26PM -0400, Timothy Miller wrote: > I'm using Red Hat kernel 2.4.18-26.7.x. > > I ran a program which is trying to suck up all of memory. I would like > to kill the process, but "top", "vmstat", and "ps" all hang when I try > to use them. Also, pressing ctrl-c in the terminal where I can the > program won't kill it. > > To an extent, however, the system was still usable, albeit EXTREMELY > unresponsive. Eventually, the program dumped core, and everything > returned to norma. > > Is this a known problem? Your system seems to be in normal working order. There is no problem here. A program using up all memory _will_ make the machine very unresponsive as everything goes into swap (or discards all executable code for those who think they can fool the system by not having swap). You may indeed be unable to run other programs like top, because there aren't enough memory left to run them. Your program probably dumped core when it ran the system completely out of memory and trigged the Out-Of-Memory killer. The only unusual here is that ctrl+c didn't work, but some programs block that signal. Perhaps your program does too. You can use ulimit if you don't want your machine to become sluggish. The effect is that your memory eater will be killed earlier, before it uses up so much memory that nothing else will run. Helge Hafting