BUGS By default, Linux follows an optimistic memory allocation strategy. This means that when malloc() returns non-NULL there is no guarantee that the memory really is available. This is a really bad bug. In case it turns out that the system is out of memory, one or more processes will be killed by the infamous OOM killer. In case Linux is employed under circumstances where it would be less desirable to suddenly lose some randomly picked processes, and moreover the kernel version is suf- ficiently recent, one can switch off this overcommitting behavior using a command like # echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory See also the kernel Documentation directory, files vm/overcommit- accounting and sysctl/vm.txt. Checking malloc()'s return value is always a good idea (or, not checking is a bad idea, as is potential null pointer dereference). But default behaviour may not be entirely what you expect. Disabling overcommitting may sound nice, but is a far from ideal solution... hence it's not the default. On the other hand, out of memory (OOM) situations being caused by icecast are very unlikely. Icecast is not a heavy application wrt memory. And, if you encounter an OOM situation on a server running icecast, simply abort()ing icecast is not likely to resolve the OOM situation, and other measures need to be taken. That's where the OOM killer comes in to kill the most likely culprit, based on scoring, so it will probably kill another process to make room for icecast's needs. But the OOM killer should work only as a reminder to take preventive measures, like ulimit-ing buggy programs or users. -- Maarten