/proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
This file contains the kernel virtual
memory accounting mode. Values are: 0: heuristic overcommit (this is
the default) 1: always overcommit, never check 2: always check, never
overcommit
In mode 0, calls of mmap(2) with MAP_NORESERVE are not checked, and
the default check is very weak, leading to the risk of getting a
process “OOM-killed”. Under Linux 2.4 any nonzero value implies mode
1. In mode 2 (available since Linux 2.6), the total virtual address space on the system is limited to (SS + RAM*(r/100)), where SS is the
size of the swap space, and RAM is the size of the physical memory,
and r is the contents of the file /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_ratio.