]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/systemd.git/blame - man/systemd-oomd.service.xml
hwdb: Add mount matrix for Linx 1020
[thirdparty/systemd.git] / man / systemd-oomd.service.xml
CommitLineData
cf3e5788
AZ
1<?xml version='1.0'?>
2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
db9ecf05 4<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
cf3e5788 5
2740521f
JL
6<refentry id="systemd-oomd.service" conditional='ENABLE_OOMD'
7 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
cf3e5788
AZ
8
9 <refentryinfo>
10 <title>systemd-oomd.service</title>
11 <productname>systemd</productname>
12 </refentryinfo>
13
14 <refmeta>
15 <refentrytitle>systemd-oomd.service</refentrytitle>
16 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
17 </refmeta>
18
19 <refnamediv>
20 <refname>systemd-oomd.service</refname>
21 <refname>systemd-oomd</refname>
22 <refpurpose>A userspace out-of-memory (OOM) killer</refpurpose>
23 </refnamediv>
24
25 <refsynopsisdiv>
26 <para><filename>systemd-oomd.service</filename></para>
27 <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-oomd</filename></para>
28 </refsynopsisdiv>
29
30 <refsect1>
31 <title>Description</title>
32
6f83ea60
ZJS
33 <para><command>systemd-oomd</command> is a system service that uses cgroups-v2 and pressure stall
34 information (PSI) to monitor and take corrective action before an OOM occurs in the kernel space.</para>
35
36 <para>You can enable monitoring and actions on units by setting <varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> and
37 <varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> in the unit configuration, see
38 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
39 <command>systemd-oomd</command> retrieves information about such units from <command>systemd</command>
40 when it starts and watches for subsequent changes.</para>
41
42 <para>Cgroups of units with <varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> or
43 <varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> set to <option>kill</option> will be monitored.
44 <command>systemd-oomd</command> periodically polls PSI statistics for the system and those cgroups to
45 decide when to take action. If the configured limits are exceeded, <command>systemd-oomd</command> will
46 select a cgroup to terminate, and send <constant>SIGKILL</constant> to all processes in it. Note that
47 only descendant cgroups are eligible candidates for killing; the unit with its property set to
48 <option>kill</option> is not a candidate (unless one of its ancestors set their property to
49 <option>kill</option>). Also only leaf cgroups and cgroups with <filename>memory.oom.group</filename> set
50 to <constant>1</constant> are eligible candidates; see <varname>OOMPolicy=</varname> in
51 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
52 </para>
53
54 <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> can
55 be used to list monitored cgroups and pressure information.</para>
56
57 <para>See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
cf3e5788
AZ
58 for more information about the configuration of this service.</para>
59 </refsect1>
60
61 <refsect1>
6f83ea60 62 <title>System requirements and configuration</title>
cf3e5788
AZ
63
64 <para>The system must be running systemd with a full unified cgroup hierarchy for the expected cgroups-v2 features.
169be51f
AZ
65 Furthermore, memory accounting must be turned on for all units monitored by <command>systemd-oomd</command>.
66 The easiest way to turn on memory accounting is by ensuring the value for <varname>DefaultMemoryAccounting=</varname>
67 is set to <constant>true</constant> in
cf3e5788
AZ
68 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
69
6f83ea60 70 <para>The kernel must be compiled with PSI support. This is available in Linux 4.20 and above.</para>
cf3e5788 71
6f83ea60
ZJS
72 <para>It is highly recommended for the system to have swap enabled for <command>systemd-oomd</command> to
73 function optimally. With swap enabled, the system spends enough time swapping pages to let
74 <command>systemd-oomd</command> react. Without swap, the system enters a livelocked state much more
75 quickly and may prevent <command>systemd-oomd</command> from responding in a reasonable amount of
76 time. See <ulink url="https://chrisdown.name/2018/01/02/in-defence-of-swap.html">"In defence of swap:
77 common misconceptions"</ulink> for more details on swap. Any swap-based actions on systems without swap
78 will be ignored. While <command>systemd-oomd</command> can perform pressure-based actions on such a
79 system, the pressure increases will be more abrupt and may require more tuning to get the desired
80 thresholds and behavior.</para>
cf3e5788
AZ
81
82 <para>Be aware that if you intend to enable monitoring and actions on <filename>user.slice</filename>,
6f83ea60
ZJS
83 <filename>user-$UID.slice</filename>, or their ancestor cgroups, it is highly recommended that your
84 programs be managed by the systemd user manager to prevent running too many processes under the same
85 session scope (and thus avoid a situation where memory intensive tasks trigger
86 <command>systemd-oomd</command> to kill everything under the cgroup). If you're using a desktop
87 environment like GNOME or KDE, it already spawns many session components with the systemd user manager.
88 </para>
cf3e5788
AZ
89 </refsect1>
90
91 <refsect1>
92 <title>Usage Recommendations</title>
93
94 <para><varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> works with the system-wide swap values, so setting it on the root slice
95 <filename>-.slice</filename>, and allowing all descendant cgroups to be eligible candidates may make the most
96 sense.</para>
97
6f83ea60
ZJS
98 <para><varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> tends to work better on the cgroups below the root
99 slice. For units which tend to have processes that are less latency sensitive (e.g.
100 <filename>system.slice</filename>), a higher limit like the default of 60% may be acceptable, as those
101 processes can usually ride out slowdowns caused by lack of memory without serious consequences. However,
102 something like <filename>user@$UID.service</filename> may prefer a much lower value like 40%.</para>
cf3e5788
AZ
103 </refsect1>
104
2740521f
JL
105 <refsect1>
106 <title>Options</title>
107
108 <variablelist>
109 <varlistentry>
110 <term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
111
112 <listitem><para>Do a dry run of <command>systemd-oomd</command>: when a kill is triggered, print it
113 to the log instead of killing the cgroup.</para></listitem>
114 </varlistentry>
115 </variablelist>
116
117 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
118 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
119 </refsect1>
120
cf3e5788
AZ
121 <refsect1>
122 <title>See Also</title>
123 <para>
124 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
125 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
126 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
127 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
128 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
129 </para>
130 </refsect1>
131</refentry>