[Bug 1978699] [NEW] systemd-oomd kills the whole terminal with the culprit process

[Federico Ferri]

Public bug reported:

My usecase:

Compiling a very large C++ unit which required more memory than what was
available (ram+swap).

What happened:

The terminal disappeared without even an explanation of what happened.

It took me several trials before realizing what was going on.
Then I quickly created a swap file and activated it, and finally I was able to compile the thing.

Final remarks:

1) Killing the whole terminal with all its subprocesses is totally not nice.
Killing only the culprit process (cc) would have been a more than appropriate action.

(please don't explain me the details of systemd-oomd; I'm reporting this
from and end-user's perspective).

2) Displaying a message informing that some daemon killed one (or
multiple) processes because those were using too much memory would have
been a nice addition.

Otherwise one may as well think that the new Ubuntu release is broken,
or that the machine is broken.

** Affects: systemd (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Description changed:

  My usecase:
  
  Compiling a very large C++ unit which required more memory than what was
  available (ram+swap).
- 
  
  What happened:
  
  The terminal disappeared without even an explanation of what happened.
  
  It took me several trials before realizing what was going on.
  Then I quickly created a swap file and activated it, and finally I was able to compile the thing.
- 
  
  Final remarks:
  
  1) Killing the whole terminal with all its subprocesses is totally not nice.
  Killing only the culprit process (cc) would have been a more than appropriate action.
  
  (please don't explain me the details of systemd-oomd; I'm reporting this
  from and end-user's perspective).
  
- 
- 2) Displaying a message informing that some daemon killed some (or multiple) processes because those were using too much memory would have been a nice addition.
+ 2) Displaying a message informing that some daemon killed one (or
+ multiple) processes because those were using too much memory would have
+ been a nice addition.
  
  Otherwise one may as well think that the new Ubuntu release is broken,
  or that the machine is broken.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1978699

Title:
  systemd-oomd kills the whole terminal with the culprit process

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  My usecase:

  Compiling a very large C++ unit which required more memory than what
  was available (ram+swap).

  What happened:

  The terminal disappeared without even an explanation of what happened.

  It took me several trials before realizing what was going on.
  Then I quickly created a swap file and activated it, and finally I was able to compile the thing.

  Final remarks:

  1) Killing the whole terminal with all its subprocesses is totally not nice.
  Killing only the culprit process (cc) would have been a more than appropriate action.

  (please don't explain me the details of systemd-oomd; I'm reporting
  this from and end-user's perspective).

  2) Displaying a message informing that some daemon killed one (or
  multiple) processes because those were using too much memory would
  have been a nice addition.

  Otherwise one may as well think that the new Ubuntu release is broken,
  or that the machine is broken.

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