Starting from v4.19 commit 29ef680ae7c2 ("memcg, oom: move out_of_memory back to the charge path") cgroup oom killer is no longer invoked only from page faults. Now it implements the same semantics as global OOM killer: allocation context invokes OOM killer and keeps retrying until success. Signed-off-by: Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst | 17 ++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst index bcc80269bb6a..1bb9a8f6ebe1 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.rst @@ -1172,6 +1172,13 @@ PAGE_SIZE multiple when read back. Under certain circumstances, the usage may go over the limit temporarily. + In default configuration regular 0-order allocation always + succeed unless OOM killer choose current task as a victim. + + Some kinds of allocations don't invoke the OOM killer. + Caller could retry them differently, return into userspace + as -ENOMEM or silently ignore in cases like disk readahead. + This is the ultimate protection mechanism. As long as the high limit is used and monitored properly, this limit's utility is limited to providing the final safety net. @@ -1228,17 +1235,9 @@ PAGE_SIZE multiple when read back. The number of time the cgroup's memory usage was reached the limit and allocation was about to fail. - Depending on context result could be invocation of OOM - killer and retrying allocation or failing allocation. - - Failed allocation in its turn could be returned into - userspace as -ENOMEM or silently ignored in cases like - disk readahead. For now OOM in memory cgroup kills - tasks iff shortage has happened inside page fault. - This event is not raised if the OOM killer is not considered as an option, e.g. for failed high-order - allocations. + allocations or if caller asked to not retry attempts. oom_kill The number of processes belonging to this cgroup