Re: BUG #2225: Backend crash -- BIG table

>0 means overcommit is enabled.  You want to set it to something other
>than 0 to prevent overcommitting and the consequent suprising process
>deaths.  Exactly what other values are accepted varies, but 0 isn't the
>one for you.
>
>
>
I do not understand how 0 could mean overcommit is enabled. I do not
know how it is in recent kernels, but the source code of the 2.4 kernel
I use is this:

int vm_enough_memory(long pages)
{
        unsigned long free;

        /* Sometimes we want to use more memory than we have. */
        if (sysctl_overcommit_memory)
            return 1;

        // ...
}

seems pretty straightforward to me.
I also did a recursive grep through all of the kernel source and this is
the only place where this parameter is used.
I tried setting the parameter to 1, but it did not make any difference.