[plt-scheme] Make multiple attempts to open DrScheme join running process?

On Feb 25, Todd O'Bryan wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-02-25 at 17:49 -0500, Eli Barzilay wrote:
> > On Feb 25, Todd O'Bryan wrote:
> > > 
> > > Something else I'm going to try is an automatic re-nicer that
> > > several people who use LTSP have suggested. If I put mred and
> > > drscheme on a list of suspect binaries, it should keep them from
> > > taking over the whole server.
> > 
> > That won't help much when the problem is insufficient memory.
> > 
> > 
> > > I guess I also need to figure out how to set memory limits more at a
> > > finer level than the same for all users.
> > 
> > (I posted a link earlier.)
> > 
> I already have memory limits set. I just have to play with them some
> more.
> 
> I started at 256MB per user,

Which totals about twice the memory you actually have...  If you don't
want thrashing, you should use a limit that corresponds to what you
have.  A bit more might work when your users are not doing much, but
twice the memory you have sounds unrealistic.


> but Gnome, Firefox, and DrScheme wouldn't work with that. [...]

Whoa -- you want 30 people to run Gnome, Firefox & DrScheme -- all on
a single machine?  (I'd say that unrealistic is an understatement.)


> I'm hoping that a re-nicer will work because the problem with
> runaway DrScheme processes is not limited to Linux and not limited
> to multi-user systems.

What it does is let the kernel prefer running other processes, and let
them run more often than DrScheme.  But your problem is that DrScheme
uses a lot of memory, and letting run with a lower priority is not
going to help.  (I said that it might help a little, because it will
be a bit easier to swap it out -- but at that point you're already
thrashing.)

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                  http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!