Fork bombing a Linux machine as a non-root user

[Ben O'Steen]

Les Mikesell wrote:

>On Sat, 2005-03-19 at 21:29, David Curry wrote:
>  
>
>>>No, the assumption is that the person installing the OS, expert or
>>>not, knows more about it's capabilities than the person who
>>>built the distribution that will run on anything from a P100
>>>or less to a multi-cpu, multi-Ghz box.  
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Your interpretation would be much better supported if there was some 
>>documentation available to that "person installing the OS" which 
>>informed them of the default installation settings and advisability of 
>>resetting for specific installation characteristics.
>>    
>>
>
>I simply can't believe that anyone who is obviously on the
>internet and capable of joining a mailing list can possibly
>think there is any lack of documentation available.  It is true
>that a free product generally does not come with a marketing
>force that will take you to lunch or golf and hold your hand
>while you learn about the product, but the ulimit concept has
>been documented for anyone who cares to read about it long
>before Linux was even around (remember how Linux is a free
>implementation of the unix API...).
>

How about a third way? The argument so far has been between those that 
want some sort of default ulimit, and those who believe it is up the 
sysadmin to set.

How about if ulimit settings (and perhaps others) were part of the 
anaconda installer? Under/next to the SELinux tab wouldn't be too 
jarring for most people, with a paragraph in the help file just to hint 
at why/why not they should change this.

Or, as you already have them choosing the type of install (Personal 
desktop/ workstation/ server, custom) base the default ulimit setting on 
this, perhaps?

My $0.02

Ben O'Steen