[BusyBox] choice for reserving buffers

[Larry Doolittle]

On Fri, Jan 26, 2001 at 08:39:01PM +0300, Vladimir N. Oleynik wrote:
> > A page fault that should create
> > a new, physical BSS page, but can't because of a memory shortage,
> > will turn into a SIGSEGV, or similar.
> 
> Correct Unix thus should not do it and 
> put the process in waiting or not start at all. 
> As size BSS is beforehand known. 
> It is disadvantage Linux :(

This is a _very_ old flame war between various *nixes.
Fortunately, Linux 2.2.x and greater can do what you want,
or not, selectable at run-time.  I believe the incantation is:

$ echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory

> I seem already have convinced Larry to make correct preprocessor`s
> macros.

Not really.  Macro-izing the choice between BSS and stack/malloc
requires redundant maintenance in the source, as I pointed out
before.  If someone else wants to take on that headache, be my
guest.  I would rather choose to go back to the old BSS-only approach.

     - Larry