From: s_titz@ira.uka.de (Olaf Titz) Subject: Re: Linux lockup on "out of memory" Date: 25 Feb 1993 13:37:48 GMT
In article <1993Feb24.200335.739@rz.uni-jena.de> pih@rz.uni-jena.de (Erik Heinz) writes:
> My trials to compile larger X applications, like xv2.21, ended in a lockup
> of Linux. The last I saw was "out of memory", after this the system would
>...
> Installing a 8MB swap file did not help, it did only lengthen the time
> before lockup. Saving memory by desactivating -O did not help, either.
> - Could I have done something wrong, or is it a bug?
I assume you're already leaving out the biggest memory hog, i.e. the X
server...
It is known that GCC will react 'critically' to memory shortages. Most
likely this is the cause, especially for big input *files*. (The
overall program size does not matter. I have recently come into
troubles recompiling the kernel with 4MB RAM and no swap; the compiler
crashed on console.c, which is the largest file in the kernel.)
Also not the fact that MAKE on bigger programs usually runs several
instances of MAKE, which can take quite a lot of memory. (That was the
source of my problems with the kernel. In the 3rd level of subdirs,
there are running 3 makes parallel to GCC!)
> - Should I in principle be able to compile larger applications with 8MB RAM
> or should I think abour buying some more SIMMs?
In principle it should be possible. Watch out for memory usage
reported by TOP during compiling, and try with even more swap space.
Olaf
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