This is not a bug. It turns out the behaviour I was seeing was due to the fact that swap accounting is disabled by default and so the perl process was swapping rather than being killed when its RAM limit was reached.
If I turn swap off (swapoff -a), the process is killed correctly. Similarly, if I inhibit swapping by setting memory.swappiness to 0 in the "example" cgroup, the process is killed correctly. Alternatively, if I turn swap accounting on (by setting `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1"` in /etc/default/grub, running update-grub, and rebooting), then memory.memsw.* files appear in the "example" cgroup. If I set memory.limit_in_bytes and memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes both to 3000000, then the perl process is killed correctly. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1303683 Title: Memory resource controller oom killing not functioning Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: This problem reproduces on Ubuntu 13.10 with a 3.11 kernel but, for comparison, works ok on RHEL 7 with a 3.10 kernel. Steps to reproduce: 1. Make a directory, for example /home/glyn/cgh1. 2. Switch to root user. 3. Attach the memory resource controller subsystem to a cgroup hierarchy: # mount -t cgroup -o memory none /home/glyn/cgh1 4. cd /home/glyn/cgh1 5. Createa a child cgroup: # mkdir example 6. cd example 7. check oom killing is enabled: # cat memory.oom_control oom_kill_disable 0 under_oom 0 8. Set a memory limit for the example cgroup of approx. 1 MB: # echo 1000000 > memory.limit_in_bytes # cat memory.limit_in_bytes 1003520 9. Move the current process into the example cgroup and check it has moved: # echo $$ > tasks # cat tasks 7357 8449 # cat tasks 7357 8450 10. Run a process which will exceed 1 MB of memory: # perl -e 'for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) { $foo .= "A" x (1024 * 1024); }' # This terminates successfully whereas it should have been killed. On RHEL 7 (and on earlier Ubuntu versions I have tried), the results look like this: # perl -e 'for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) { $foo .= "A" x (1024 * 1024); }' killed # I will attempt to reproduce this bug on an upstream kernel, but don't want to lose the bug report during the upgrade, hence I am filing the report now. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10 Package: linux-image (not installed) ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-17.31-generic 3.11.10.3 Uname: Linux 3.11.0-17-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.2 Architecture: amd64 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC0: glyn 1587 F.... pulseaudio Date: Mon Apr 7 10:16:24 2014 HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=18692506-8752-46bb-8b44-1fb2f0ba5e03 InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-05 (32 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1) IwConfig: eth0 no wireless extensions. lo no wireless extensions. docker0 no wireless extensions. Lsusb: Bus 001 Device 004: ID 80ee:0021 VirtualBox USB Tablet Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub MachineType: innotek GmbH VirtualBox MarkForUpload: True ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_GB:en TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-17-generic root=UUID=24214f2e-a703-46ea-9fdd-0f64e110b628 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 PulseList: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon. RelatedPackageVersions: linux-restricted-modules-3.11.0-17-generic N/A linux-backports-modules-3.11.0-17-generic N/A linux-firmware 1.116.2 RfKill: SourcePackage: linux UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006 dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox dmi.board.name: VirtualBox dmi.board.vendor: Oracle Corporation dmi.board.version: 1.2 dmi.chassis.type: 1 dmi.chassis.vendor: Oracle Corporation dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2:rvnOracleCorporation:rnVirtualBox:rvr1.2:cvnOracleCorporation:ct1:cvr: dmi.product.name: VirtualBox dmi.product.version: 1.2 dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1303683/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
