Debian bug report logs - #1759
running out of swap causes deadlock

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Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 21:45 GMT
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: Debian bugs submission address <debian-bugs@pixar.com>
Subject: running out of swap causes deadlock

Package: source
Version: 1.2.13

To reproduce: do lots of things that need lots of swap, when you
haven't got enough.

Effect: system locks up totally, with only an insignificant amount
of disk activity.

Thrashing badly I could understand (but wouldn't like).  Randomly
killing processes I could understand, and might at least allow *some*
of the system to come down cleanly.

As it is, you have to hit the reset switch.

This is a known problem with Linux in general.  I just thought I'd
report it here as we're supposed to be able to have the package
maintainer chase up the upstream maintainer - linux-kernel in this
case.  Usually discussions of this on linux-kernel produce heat but no
light.

Ian.