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Erlang Getting Too-Big-To-Fail Process Flag

Posted by Unknown on from the c-processes-don't-deserve-that-memory-anyway dept.

From Joe Armstrong comes news that Erlang will soon feature a new process flag for those processes that just really need memory, or else: "Too big to fail processes behave like regular processes until they get too big and memory congestion occurs. If a memory allocation error is triggered when a too_big_to_fail process needs more memory, then a random smaller process is killed, and the system reattempts memory allocation for the too_big_to_fail process. An interesting situation can occur if the too big to fail process has killed all other processes and still cannot get enough memory. In this case the node running the process tries to memory steal from other nodes." Read below for your FREE logged-in-reader's-eye view of the special rot-39 version!

Sebz Wbr Nezfgebat pbzrf arjf gung Reynat jvyy fbba srngher n arj cebprff synt sbe gubfr cebprffrf gung whfg ernyyl arrq zrzbel, be ryfr: "Gbb ovt gb snvy cebprffrf orunir yvxr erthyne cebprffrf hagvy gurl trg gbb ovt naq zrzbel pbatrfgvba bpphef. Vs n zrzbel nyybpngvba reebe vf gevttrerq jura n gbb_ovt_gb_snvy cebprff arrqf zber zrzbel, gura n enaqbz fznyyre cebprff vf xvyyrq, naq gur flfgrz ernggrzcgf zrzbel nyybpngvba sbe gur gbb_ovt_gb_snvy cebprff. Na vagrerfgvat fvghngvba pna bpphe vs gur gbb ovt gb snvy cebprff unf xvyyrq nyy bgure cebprffrf naq fgvyy pnaabg trg rabhtu zrzbel. Va guvf pnfr gur abqr ehaavat gur cebprff gevrf gb zrzbel fgrny sebz bgure abqrf."

35 comments

  1. Damn it by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot keeps making me log in to see ROT13. This April Fool's thing has gone too far. I want my normal ROT13 fare!

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:Damn it by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

      I remember when the jokes were clever.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  2. Decryption by DarkHorseman · · Score: 1

    It doesn't work on this story...

  3. ROT-39, Just in the nick o' time! by girlinatrainingbra · · Score: 1

    Hey, they rolled out the special ROT-26 and bonus ROT-39 editions for the last minute before midnight Zulu-time April Fool's Day Edition!
    .
    Yipee-kai-yay, mother-fokkers! Srsly, what took you so long? What? The day's over alreadY? ... :>(

  4. Great! by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 2

    I assume developers will have to pay extra for use of this feature, ensuring ll the large companies get to slap it on all their processes and no one else does.

    I mean, ensuring the feature is used responsibly and not abused.

    1. Re:Great! by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So, this gets to be used by all those bank and loan institutions who use trade bots to manipulate the global stock market?

      Question: what happens if 2 such processes re running concurrently on the same node, and actively try to outperform the other by proactivally allocating all available free memory?

    2. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously the first process to try allocating all available free memory will succeed, while the second will kill the first and then succeed. Didn't you read the summary?

    3. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see Apple or Microsoft offering "priority" CPU, GPU, and Memory access for "premium" apps.

    4. Re:Great! by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      But that would imply that a too_big_to_fail process can indeed fail! Allowing the contention to kill the first process, instead of jumping instantly to the allocator of last resort breaks the model!

    5. Re:Great! by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      I can see Apple or Microsoft offering "priority" CPU, GPU, and Memory access for "premium" apps.

      they already do. see windows rt, windows phone and iOS. approved api access(including killing other processes) for "partners" and whoever the fuck is in fashion this week at the middle manager level.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    6. Re:Great! by aix+tom · · Score: 1

      It's kinda like the "things that can not break" in mechanics, I guess.

      There the difference between "things that can break" and "things that never ever possibly can break" is: Every time a thing that never ever possibly can break breaks, it's impossible to get at and repair.

  5. If this had been the only joke... by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this had been the only joke today, I think it would have worked.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:If this had been the only joke... by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The point of Slashdot on April fool's day is to collect the jokes from around the web. Not much original content here ever.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:If this had been the only joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're all shit though. Shouldn't they be collecting the good jokes?

    3. Re:If this had been the only joke... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah this one's quite funny.

  6. Hope /. learnt its lesson. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2, Insightful

    None of the discussions today broke 3 digits on comments. Try something like this again, I am not coming back. Stupid rot13 trick. Whoever came up with the idea of running it this long should be fired summarily.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by ultranova · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Stupid rot13 trick. Whoever came up with the idea of running it this long should be fired summarily.

      Workplaces where people are fired sumarily for mistakes are ones where no one ever does anything except cover their ass and search for any other employer. The quality and amount of work that gets done reflects this.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    2. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chill out. It always amazes me how many angry posts there are from mouth-breathing dorks that cant take a break, even one day, from their steady stream of CPU news and what Linus had for breakfast. I always enjoy the April 1st shenanigans, personally. They do this every year so I guess plan on not coming back in ~365 days. We will try to manage without you, somehow...

    3. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Ksevio · · Score: 1

      That's not actually true...The dinosaur, Commodore 64, and Linus Win9 articles all got into triple digits, not to mention a couple plain text ones.

      Though I admit I avoided slashdot today because it didn't have real articles and was too much work to read the fake ones.

    4. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " should be fired summarily."

      I read that as " should be fried summarily"

    5. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree!

    6. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's kind of hard for the quality of slashdot to get any lower than what it was today.

    7. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that this "workplace" is long dead. I mean come-on... Everyone is gone! Slashdot died years ago!

      I still remember when the Slashdot effect was real, and brought even huge sites down. I still remember regularly seeing over 1000 comments on stories. I still remember 30 stories a day being the *minimum*.

      Nobody here gives a shit anymore. Most of us just come here out of habit. And we always ask: Why did we have to come here again? What's the point? To read a fifth of the interesting stories on certain subreddits a second time? Come *on*....!

    8. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Workplaces where people are fired sumarily for mistakes

      Ding! You're out!

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    9. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      true but April Fools is done. It is no longer clever or funny. So Slashdot needs to move on.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    10. Re:Hope /. learnt its lesson. by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      It can always be worse. Always.

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!
  7. Resistance certain. by EricTheGreen · · Score: 1

    Angry developers, seeing this as little more than a back-door raid on their precious computing resources, are banding together in newly-formed TCP Parties, determined to resist meddling compiler makers and nebulous language specification agencies answerable to no one....

  8. Re:Hope /. ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hope you get..

    • .. a grip
    • .. some sense of humour
    • .. not hit by the door on your way out
  9. I hate April 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    every year... same crap... I don't know why I bother... as bad as this place is normally... it just gets worse when geeks try to be funny...

    remember folks... we here at the FBI have no sense of humor we are aware of...

    leave the humor to the professionals... like bush or obama...

    rant about something real damn it...

  10. Vigil - A More Elegant Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Improper utilization of limited resources is a symptom of incorrect code.

    Vigil already has a much more elegant solution to the general problem of incorrect code:
    https://github.com/munificent/vigil

    Rather than punish other programs, it simply deletes the offending code.

    All Vigil programs are guaranteed to run without error, eventually.

    1. Re:Vigil - A More Elegant Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the code is gone, it doesn't perform tasks it was asked to do. Tasks that were perhaps... you know... *NECESSARY*!
      What's the point of code that has no errors because it *does nothing*!?
      I'm sorry, but that, in and on itself, is an error.

    2. Re:Vigil - A More Elegant Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try adding "import sense_of_humor" at the top of your script, and see if it works any better.

  11. ahhh, now I can divide by zero by swschrad · · Score: 1

    and I don't have to have error checking on my compilers any more. time to get back into programming!

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  12. Inspired by OOM killer? by sheepweevil · · Score: 1

    This sounds a lot like the Linux OOM killer. You can set the oomadj value to protect certain processes against the OOM killer, making it almost the same as these too-big-to-fail processes. I guess the only difference is stealing memory from other nodes.