Re: Does c++(under linux) overcommit memory?

From:
"peter koch" <peter.koch.larsen@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
17 Feb 2007 02:40:12 -0800
Message-ID:
<1171708812.872270.323870@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>
On 17 Feb., 11:10, "jon wayne" <jon.wayne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi

I was always under the assumption that linux always overcommits memory
by default - but I'm getting unexpected results
while requesting for a large ammount of memory using new (c++).

That I don't know.

In the sense , say I try and allocate dynamically a large array p (int
*p)

             p = (int *) malloc(N * sizeof(int)); // ----
1

and replace it by

             p = new int[ N * sizeof(int)]; // -- 2

That is not a replacement (unless sizeof(int) happens to be 1 on your
platform). The corresponding expression is
p = new int[ N];

                  where N = 1000000000000000 //

 the second statement always generates a bad_alloc exception ---
Agreed that if you try and access p it'd give a SIGSEGV - but why
should a plain allocation give a bad_alloc - "C" doesn't seem to mind
it - shouldn't C++ too??

I would normally recommend that you use std::vector. Here, you'd have:
std::vector<int> v(N);

(and use &v[0] whenever you want a pointer to its first element).
In that case you'd have a segment violation because the vector would
be initialised and the overcomitment would kick in right away.
[snip]

/Peter

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