[renehsz]

> It also assumes that the OS doesn't lie to the application when allocations fail.

Gotta do the good ol'

  echo 2 >/proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory

and maybe adjust overcommit_ratio as well to make sure the memory you allocated is actually available.

[pjmlp]

OS specific hack and unrelated to C.

[tredre3]

Your comment was also OS-specific because Windows doesn't lie to applications about failed allocations.