Why kernel kills processes that run out of memory instead of just failing memory allocation system calls?

[Dag-Erling Smørgrav]

Alfred Perlstein <alfred at freebsd.org> writes:
> Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des at des.no> writes:
> > Usually, what you see is closer to this:
> > 
> > if ((pid = fork()) == 0) {
> >         for (int fd = 3; fd < getdtablesize(); ++fd)
> >                 (void)close(fd);
> >         execve(path, argv, envp);
> >         _exit(1);
> > }
>
> I'm probably missing something, but couldn't you iterate 
> in the parent setting the close-on-exec flag then vfork?

This is an example, Alfred.  Like most examples, it is greatly
simplified.  I invite you to peruse the source to find real-world
instances of non-trivial fork() / execve() usage.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des at des.no