[Python-Dev] FreeBSD 7 amd64 and large memory tests

[Jon Ribbens]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 08:21:55AM -0700, Alex Martelli wrote:
> Unbelievable as this may seem, this crazy over-committing malloc
> behavior is by now "a classic" -- I first fought against it in 1990,
> when IBM released AIX 3 for its then-new RS/6000 line of workstations;
> in a later minor release they did provide a way to optionally switch
> this off, but, like on Linux, it's a system-wide switch, NOT
> per-process:-(.
> 
> I concur with http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/lk/lk-9.html (the best
> explanation I know of the subject, and recommended reading) which, on
> this subject, says "Linux on the other hand is seriously broken."
> (just like AIX 3 was).  Sad to learn that BSD is now also broken in
> the same way:-(.

It's now "now" also broken, it has been that way for a very long time.
For example, see this message I wrote back in July 1999 complaining
about FreeBSD overcommit:
http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org/msg01056.html