{"slug": "systemd-oomd", "name": "systemd-oomd", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 3, "score": 0.124, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-16", "latest": "2026-09-11", "why": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "archlinux.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd-oomd.service.html", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["systemd-oomd"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 789534272, "item_id": 49345892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345892", "by": "augusto-moura", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you tried setting up systemd-oomd [1]? It works by killing the offending process (hopefully) before a true OOM.", "excerpt": "Have you tried setting up systemd-oomd [1]? It works by killing the offending process (hopefully) before a true OOM. When I run in a frozen system because of RAM, I'm a happy user of the Magic SysRq 'f' [2], it bypasses most kernel scheduling so it works even on frozen systems [1]: https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd-oomd.8 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key", "context": "", "use_case": "Out-of-memory process killer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM"}, {"id": 789533057, "item_id": 49345816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345816", "by": "augusto-moura", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box", "excerpt": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box [1]: https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom [2]: https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd-oomd.8", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM"}, {"id": 773317249, "item_id": 48332328, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48332328", "by": "mixmastamyk", "date": "2026-05-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years.", "excerpt": "zswap works well in my experience. Don't need both. Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years. 16gb here with VMs and lots going on. This doc clears some things up: https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html", "context": "Runs 16GB machine with VMs and many workloads", "use_case": "Out-of-memory handling", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 756575328, "item_id": 47285958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47285958", "by": "jauntywundrkind", "date": "2026-03-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If using systemd-oomd, you can launch Firefox into it's own cgroup", "excerpt": "If using systemd-oomd, you can launch Firefox into it's own cgroup / systemd.scope, that has memory pressure control settings set to not kill it. ManagedOOMPreference=avoid. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.resource-control.html#Memory%20Pressure%20Control There's a variety of oom daemons. bustd is very lightweight & new. earlyoom has been around a long time, and has an --avoid flag. ht", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 794486960, "item_id": 49655435, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49655435", "by": "ButlerianJihad", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Chris disables systemd-oomd after it obliterates his X session with no explanation", "excerpt": "I believe that you mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrashing_(computer_science) Chris Siebenmann discusses when the OOM killer triggers: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/OOMKillerWhen Chris disables systemd-oomd after it obliterates his X session with no explanation: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/SystemdOomdNowDisabled", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead"}, {"id": 743453297, "item_id": 46465831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465831", "by": "epistasis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mint wisely avoided systemd-oomd", "excerpt": "Apparently, Mint wisely avoided systemd-oomd: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Mint-17-No-OOMD Thanks for the suggestion!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}, {"id": 735166240, "item_id": 45947890, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947890", "by": "LtdJorge", "date": "2025-11-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "OOMD has killed my greetd session before", "excerpt": "Same, -j32 with 64GB on a 3950x. I use 50% of ZRAM, but it\u2019s still not enough most of the times, so I had to make a config called less-threads that only uses 24, with ZRAM enabled. I also use OOMD, but I have to work on separating my systemd units better, OOMD has killed my greetd session before, and with that my entire tree of userland processes :D", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "HipKittens: Fast and furious AMD kernels"}]}], "who": [{"by": "mixmastamyk", "context": "Runs 16GB machine with VMs and many workloads", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48332328", "date": "2026-05-29"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["out-of-memory process killer", "out-of-memory handling"], "compared": [{"slug": "earlyoom", "name": "earlyoom", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49342719", "title": "Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49618087", "title": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48323869", "title": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47265580", "title": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457770", "title": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45923188", "title": "HipKittens: Fast and furious AMD kernels", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"warn": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 794486960, "item_id": 49655435, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49655435", "by": "ButlerianJihad", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Chris disables systemd-oomd after it obliterates his X session with no explanation", "excerpt": "I believe that you mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrashing_(computer_science) Chris Siebenmann discusses when the OOM killer triggers: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/OOMKillerWhen Chris disables systemd-oomd after it obliterates his X session with no explanation: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/SystemdOomdNowDisabled", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead"}, {"id": 789534272, "item_id": 49345892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345892", "by": "augusto-moura", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you tried setting up systemd-oomd [1]? It works by killing the offending process (hopefully) before a true OOM.", "excerpt": "Have you tried setting up systemd-oomd [1]? It works by killing the offending process (hopefully) before a true OOM. When I run in a frozen system because of RAM, I'm a happy user of the Magic SysRq 'f' [2], it bypasses most kernel scheduling so it works even on frozen systems [1]: https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd-oomd.8 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key", "context": "", "use_case": "Out-of-memory process killer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM"}, {"id": 789533057, "item_id": 49345816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345816", "by": "augusto-moura", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box", "excerpt": "For OOM, there's earlyoom [1] and systemd-oomd [2]. They usually work out of the box [1]: https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom [2]: https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd-oomd.8", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM"}, {"id": 773317249, "item_id": 48332328, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48332328", "by": "mixmastamyk", "date": "2026-05-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years.", "excerpt": "zswap works well in my experience. Don't need both. Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years. 16gb here with VMs and lots going on. This doc clears some things up: https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html", "context": "Runs 16GB machine with VMs and many workloads", "use_case": "Out-of-memory handling", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 756575328, "item_id": 47285958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47285958", "by": "jauntywundrkind", "date": "2026-03-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If using systemd-oomd, you can launch Firefox into it's own cgroup", "excerpt": "If using systemd-oomd, you can launch Firefox into it's own cgroup / systemd.scope, that has memory pressure control settings set to not kill it. ManagedOOMPreference=avoid. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.resource-control.html#Memory%20Pressure%20Control There's a variety of oom daemons. bustd is very lightweight & new. earlyoom has been around a long time, and has an --avoid flag. ht", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces"}, {"id": 743453297, "item_id": 46465831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465831", "by": "epistasis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Mint wisely avoided systemd-oomd", "excerpt": "Apparently, Mint wisely avoided systemd-oomd: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Mint-17-No-OOMD Thanks for the suggestion!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}, {"id": 735166240, "item_id": 45947890, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947890", "by": "LtdJorge", "date": "2025-11-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "OOMD has killed my greetd session before", "excerpt": "Same, -j32 with 64GB on a 3950x. I use 50% of ZRAM, but it\u2019s still not enough most of the times, so I had to make a config called less-threads that only uses 24, with ZRAM enabled. I also use OOMD, but I have to work on separating my systemd units better, OOMD has killed my greetd session before, and with that my entire tree of userland processes :D", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "HipKittens: Fast and furious AMD kernels"}]}