Plus, you can do all the graceful malloc() failure handling that you want, but if the kernel hasn't got overcommit disabled, then your program can still exit un

Plus, you can do all the graceful malloc() failure handling that you want, but if the kernel hasn't got overcommit disabled, then your program can still exit uncleanly when you later on try to use some malloc()d memory that was overcomitted. Exiting cleanly would mean trapping SIGBUS/SIGSEGV (can't remember which one is invoked) and being able to roll-back from just about any point in your code or libraries) You need to ensure overcommit is disabled, but because that's a system-wide setting, your program can't easily force that on.