Subject: Re: Swapping problems (was: Re: 1.2 features, again)
To: None <laine@morningstar.com>
From: John S. Dyson <dyson@celebration.net>
List: current-users
Date: 06/27/1996 10:57:29
> 
> >> Is the VM leak fixed in 1.2?  This one's really starting to annoy me.
> 
> >You can "solve" this problem by getting more RAM and never using any swap.
> >Of course, then you may be hit by the bounce-buffer-lack problem, which
> >hasn't been fixed, either...  But perhaps you're lucky enough not to be
> >bitten by the serial port problem, which won't be fixed by 1.2... ;-) :-(
> 
FreeBSD doesn't have the VM leak anymore (nor does BSDI.)  It isn't all that
hard to fix and is mostly an exercise in data structures.  No big rewrite
is needed.

> 
> Having swap that kicked in gracefully, rather than with a brick-smash on
> the forehead, would be *really* nice (and would make NetBSD appear to be
> more stable under load). What can someone who has no time and very
> little knowledge about the VM code do to help get this fixed? Pretty
> please? I can live with the leak, by the way, but this dying does me
> absolutely no good when trying to defend myself against the inhouse
> Linux-heads and SunOS-worshippers (this is an experimental system we're
> trying to get approved for real use).
> 
Try FreeBSD, if you are running on X86 machines.  It's VM perf is better
than Linux in most respects, and in -current blows it away.  Also, FreeBSD
really works under load.

John