Re: master 5c532fe303: Recommend that the user turn off memory overcommit

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > > +@cindex memory trouble, GNU/Linux
  > > +  On GNU/Linux systems, the system does not normally report running
  > > +out of memory to Emacs, and can instead randomly kill processes when
  > > +they run out of memory.  We recommend that you turn this behavior off,
  > > +so that Emacs can respond correctly when it runs out of memory, by
  > > +becoming the super user, editing the file @code{/etc/sysctl.conf} to
  > > +contain the following lines, and then running the command @code{sysctl
  > > +-p}:

  > FWIW, I think this is none of Emacs's business.

The idea of "Emacs's business" is not a coherent concept
when we're thinking about what to say in the Emacs Manual.
The right question is, is this Emacs users' business?

The Emacs Manual is meant to tell Emacs users what they need to know,
and if this is something important for Emacs users to know about, that
is a fine place to tell them.

I don't have an opinion about what is best to do about this.  However,
if a problem means Emacs is likely crash, and we can't fix the problem
in Emacs itself, giving users advice in the manual is good to
consider.

I wonder if it is possible for Emacs to explicitly ask whether it is
getting close to overcommitting.  Even if that approach can't entirely
prevent the problem of surprise death, it might make that problem
happen much less frequently.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)