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I remember fork-bombing a production server - the sheer panic as process table entries keep getting used up and commands getting slower and slower by second is
by noisy_boy 6y ago
I remember fork-bombing a production server - the sheer panic as process table entries keep getting used up and commands getting slower and slower by second is unforgettable (which is probably why I'm super cautious about anything to do with Production now).
- anonymousiam 6y agoI once (accidentally) took down Netcom with a fork bomb. Not just one node, but all of them. When I tried to login again after they rebooted everything, I found that my account had been banned. I got a NOC admin on the phone and apologized for my mistake, but also asked him why they did not enforce a maximum number of processes per user (via ulimit). Apparently they had never thought of doing that. He thanked me and my account was restored immediately.
- bch 6y agoExperiences like this and a bit of imagination are why I try to be not-root as quickly as possible, and sometimes consciously physically remove my hands from the keyboard instead of having them “idling” at their home position.
- anonymousiam 6y agoThe thing about a fork-bomb is that you do not need to be root to spawn one. I never had root on Netcom, but still manged to take the whole thing off-line for about 15 minutes.
- bch 6y agoYea, I didn’t mean fork-bomb specifically, just “fuck ups” generally, or “critical sections” of operations as a human :)