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List:       ubuntu-devel
Subject:    Re: systemd-oomd issues on desktop
From:       Ted Gould <ted () gould ! cx>
Date:       2022-06-10 14:30:53
Message-ID: 6B957A9B-61D9-4442-8015-67A90DCDBEBC () getmailspring ! com
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On Jun 9 2022, at 2:19 pm, Dan Streetman <ddstreet@ieee.org> wrote:
> Was systemd-oomd enabled by default for a specific reason? The kernel
> is quite able to handle oom situations itself, and has been for years,
> so while I'm not trying to suggest systemd-oomd is without any use
> case, I'm skeptical that systemd-oomd should be enabled *by default*.
> I think it's more likely to behave better when enabled to address a
> specific system use case, and leave the default behavior of handling
> oom to the kernel.
> 

What the kernel does hasn't been working and we've been discussing fixes for it for \
years. The problem is that the kernel only considers processes, not applications. So \
then when it is freeing up memory it'll kill one process of an application, but not \
remove the entire application. Systemd, using cgroups, starts to think of \
applications together so that the memory can be managed in a more sensible manner. My \
guess, without any data to back it up, is that browsers have benefited from this \
oversight as they've also put tabs in separate processes and thus avoided OOM action. \
Ted


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<div class="gmail_quote_attribution">On Jun 9 2022, at 2:19 pm, Dan Streetman \
&lt;ddstreet@ieee.org&gt; wrote:</div><blockquote><div><div>Was systemd-oomd enabled \
by default for a specific reason? The kernel</div><div>is quite able to handle oom \
situations itself, and has been for years,</div><div>so while I'm not trying to \
suggest systemd-oomd is without any use</div><div>case, I'm skeptical that \
systemd-oomd should be enabled *by default*.</div><div>I think it's more likely to \
behave better when enabled to address a</div><div>specific system use case, and leave \
the default behavior of handling</div><div>oom to the \
kernel.</div></div></blockquote><div><br><div>What the kernel does hasn't been \
working and we've been discussing fixes for it for years. The problem is that the \
kernel only considers processes, not applications. So then when it is freeing up \
memory it'll kill one process of an application, but not remove the entire \
application. Systemd, using cgroups, starts to think of applications together so that \
the memory can be managed in a more sensible manner.</div><br><div>My guess, without \
any data to back it up, is that browsers have benefited from this oversight as \
they've also put tabs in separate processes and thus avoided OOM \
action.</div><br><div>Ted</div></div>


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