According to der Mouse:
>
>/tmp has the same problem, it's just that the "wasted" resource is disk
>space instead of RAM.
>

Hmmm personally, I tend to have more disk to "waste" than memory -
especially since I have ISA cards in my machine.

>
>"/tmp: file system is full" seems pretty clear to me, even to a novice.
>

Yeah but "vfork: cannot fork" is one you don't want to see.  We run a
swag of suns here at work and our users tend to like using the
"command tool" for their console window.  The only problem with doing
this is that the command tool likes to keep all the output ever
written to it in a file in /tmp (so you can scroll back through it).
Some of my users have the habit of running commands in this window
(yeah I know about xconsole and the like _but_ they still do it...) -
when one of these commands produces copious output /tmp fills, since
/tmp is tmpfs it means the machines memory has been exhausted which
means the machine locks up tighter than a fish's bum.  Using swap for
/tmp does have it's down side....

-- 
Brett Lymn, Computer Systems Administrator, AWA Defence Industries
===============================================================================
  "Upgrading your memory gives you MORE RAM!" - ad in MacWAREHOUSE catalogue.