From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050922 Fedora/1.0.7-1.1.fc4 Firefox/1.0.7 Description of problem: The file Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt contains the following incorrect description of the overcommit_memory sysctl: ---begin--- overcommit_memory ----------------- This file contains one value. The following algorithm is used to decide if there's enough memory: if the value of overcommit_memory is positive, then there's always enough memory. This is a useful feature, since programs often malloc() huge amounts of memory 'just in case', while they only use a small part of it. Leaving this value at 0 will lead to the failure of such a huge malloc(), when in fact the system has enough memory for the program to run. On the other hand, enabling this feature can cause you to run out of memory and thrash the system to death, so large and/or important servers will want to set this value to 0. ---end--- This suggests that 0 is used to disable the feature, when in fact this enables heuristic overcommit mode. The statement that positive values enable overcommit is also untrue. The documentation was fixed upstream in 2.6.14. This feature is documented correctly in at least two other files (vm/overcommit-accounting and sysctl/vm.txt) but the current state obviously confuses people and has crept into other documentation. This is compounded by a lack of references from proc.txt to these other files. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-doc-2.6.9-22 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Read the file Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt packaged in the RHEL4 kernel-doc package or SRPM. Actual Results: Documentation is incorrect. Expected Results: Documentation should be consistent with other files and the kernel's actual behaviour. Additional info:
Created attachment 122250 [details] correct misleading description of overcommit_memory in proc.txt The patch brings the RHEL4 kernel documentation inline with upstream 2.6.14. Although there are functional changes in this area between the kernel versions, the new upstream description of this sysctl still applies to the RHEL4 implementation and correctly describes the overcommit modes (unlike current proc.txt).
Created attachment 122251 [details] change description of Commited_AS /proc/meminfo item This patch replaces the description of Committed_AS to match the upstream 2.6.14 version. There is nothing incorrect about the original description, but the new upstream version has useful cross references to the overcommit_memory mode. This is more debatable than the previous patch, hence posting separately.
Both look fine to me. Not sure if the change is worth the effort for RHEL4 but if product management want to get the change made then fine.
committed in stream U4 build 34.11. A test kernel with this patch is available from http://people.redhat.com/~jbaron/rhel4/
Just checked kernel-doc-2.6.9-34.19.EL.noarch.rpm and the overcommit stuff in proc.txt looks fine now. Thanks, Bryn.
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2006-0575.html