OOM difference on IRIX vs. linux

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve,
        I think you mentioned on this list a while ago that XFS comes from
an environment (IRIX) where allocating memory could not fail.  At least
that is what I understood you to say.  Since hardware resources are
limited on every platform I'm stumped on how this could be.  Could you
give a basic explanation of why this works on IRIX but not on linux
(without giving away any company secrets :) )?  I realize this may be
somewhat demanding so you could also tell me to take a hike :)

James Rich
james@xxxxxxxxxxxxx