ghc runtime by default (otherwise depending on a "configure" option)
does memory allocation on their own by first mmapping a 1 TB range of
memory into the process and then parceling out chunks from it.

If one of the chunks is not needed, the kernel needs to be informed -
otherwise the system would quickly run out of available RAM.

ghc does that via madvise(2).

There are two options when doing this informing:

MADV_FREE - Means "I don't need this range or the data in it any more". 
Kernel promises to fail later accesses to it.

MADV_DONTNEED - Means "I don't need this range right now - and I don't
need the data in it anymore". Kernel promises to make later accesses to
it succeed (if necessary by providing a new page initialized with zeroes).

MADV_FREE was introduced in Linux 4.5.
glibc 2.25 and later always define MADV_FREE.

Unpatched ghc 8.0.2 will use either MADV_FREE or MADV_DONTNEED, determined
at ghc compile time.  Which of them will actually succeed is determined
by the Linux kernel at run time.

This patch makes ghc try MADV_FREE.  If it doesn't work, it falls back to
MADV_DONTNEED.

The end result is that ghc programs free their memory with Linux < 4.5 again.

See https://git.haskell.org/ghc.git/commitdiff/6576bf83cdf4eac05eb88a24aa934a736c91e3da for more information.
--- a/rts/posix/OSMem.c
+++ b/rts/posix/OSMem.c
@@ -541,11 +541,24 @@ void osDecommitMemory(void *at, W_ size)
 
 #ifdef MADV_FREE
     // Try MADV_FREE first, FreeBSD has both and MADV_DONTNEED
-    // just swaps memory out
+    // just swaps memory out. Linux >= 4.5 has both DONTNEED and FREE; either
+    // will work as they both allow the system to free anonymous pages.
+    // It is important that we try both methods as the kernel which we were
+    // built on may differ from the kernel we are now running on.
     r = madvise(at, size, MADV_FREE);
-#else
-    r = madvise(at, size, MADV_DONTNEED);
+    if(r < 0) {
+        if (errno == EINVAL) {
+            // Perhaps the system doesn't support MADV_FREE; fall-through and
+            // try MADV_DONTNEED.
+        } else {
+            sysErrorBelch("unable to decommit memory");
+        }
+    } else {
+        return;
+    }
 #endif
+
+    r = madvise(at, size, MADV_DONTNEED);
     if(r < 0)
         sysErrorBelch("unable to decommit memory");
 }
nix.scm</a></div><div class='content'><table class='list nowrap'><tr class='nohover'><th class='left'>Age</th><th class='left'>Commit message (<a href='/guix/log/gnu/services/nix.scm?id=81ba7cc7324a2043523b4d6cad76d34e8dc2a7ec&amp;showmsg=1'>Expand</a>)</th><th class='left'>Author</th></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-11-30 01:08:55 +0100'>2021-11-30</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/gnu/services/nix.scm?id=892f1b7273d57b25940700877a02618fe826cc08'>services: Accept &lt;inferior-package&gt;s in lieu of &lt;package&gt;s.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>* gnu/services/authentication.scm (fprintd-configuration)
(nslcd-configuration): Substitute file-like objects for package ones.
* gnu/services/cgit.scm (cgit-configuration, opaque-cgit-configuration):
Likewise.
* gnu/services/cups.scm (package-list?, cups-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/dns.scm (verify-knot-configuration)
(ddclient-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/docker.scm (docker-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/file-sharing.scm (transmission-daemon-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/getmail.scm (getmail-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/mail.scm (dovecot-configuration)
(opaque-dovecot-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/messaging.scm (prosody-configuration)
(opaque-prosody-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/monitoring.scm (zabbix-server-configuration)
(zabbix-agent-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/networking.scm (opendht-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/pm.scm (tlp-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/telephony.scm (jami-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/virtualization.scm (libvirt-configuration)
(qemu-guest-agent-configuration): Likewise.
* gnu/services/vpn.scm (openvpn-client-configuration): Likewise.
</span></span></td><td>Tobias Geerinckx-Rice</td></tr>