> 
> And what do you do, then, with the processes that happen to have
> legitimate use for more stack?
> 
> Or maybe you just find out how much stack each process uses, and
> then set limits appropriate for each one? Which is the equivalent of
> setting limits to each user, of course...

You get a little program, like eg. Xenix and Minix had, which lets you 
modify the executable header to indicate how much stack the system 
should reserve.  If the program decides to use more stack for some 
reason, then it dies; this is in effect "stack overcommit".  8)

-- 
\\  The mind's the standard       \\  Mike Smith
\\  of the man.                   \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\    -- Joseph Merrick           \\  msmith@cdrom.com