On Sat, Mar 11, 2023, 10:32 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

Again, you are reasoning about the value as if it were related to the
maximum memory footprint Emacs could have. But in fact, it is related
only to the _increment_ of memory Emacs can have before it should stop
and consider how much of that is garbage.

So, should there be a parameter that controls the maximum amount of memory emacs is allowed to allocate (and not just in the lisp heap), like an internal ulimit?

The uncertainty of that limit in a given system appears to be motivating the calibration of these gc parameters. Combine that with dire warnings about the consequences of mis-setting those parameters but no apparent way to get at the cause of those settings being unsafe.

Lynn