[linux] What killed my process and why?

This is the Linux out of memory manager (OOM). Your process was selected due to 'badness' - a combination of recentness, resident size (memory in use, rather than just allocated) and other factors.

sudo journalctl -xb

You'll see a message like:

Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Mem-Info:
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA per-cpu:
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: CPU    0: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu:
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: CPU    0: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:  30
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: active_anon:206043 inactive_anon:6347 isolated_anon:0
                                    active_file:722 inactive_file:4126 isolated_file:0
                                    unevictable:0 dirty:5 writeback:0 unstable:0
                                    free:12202 slab_reclaimable:3849 slab_unreclaimable:14574
                                    mapped:792 shmem:12802 pagetables:1651 bounce:0
                                    free_cma:0
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA free:4576kB min:708kB low:884kB high:1060kB active_anon:10012kB inactive_anon:488kB active_file:4kB inactive_file:4kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0 968 968 968
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA32 free:44232kB min:44344kB low:55428kB high:66516kB active_anon:814160kB inactive_anon:24900kB active_file:2884kB inactive_file:16500kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA: 17*4kB (UEM) 22*8kB (UEM) 15*16kB (UEM) 12*32kB (UEM) 8*64kB (E) 9*128kB (UEM) 2*256kB (UE) 3*512kB (UM) 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 4580kB
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 DMA32: 216*4kB (UE) 601*8kB (UE) 448*16kB (UE) 311*32kB (UEM) 135*64kB (UEM) 74*128kB (UEM) 5*256kB (EM) 0*512kB 0*1024kB 1*2048kB (R) 0*4096kB = 44232kB
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Node 0 hugepages_total=0 hugepages_free=0 hugepages_surp=0 hugepages_size=2048kB
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 17656 total pagecache pages
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 0 pages in swap cache
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Free swap  = 0kB
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Total swap = 0kB
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 262141 pages RAM
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 7645 pages reserved
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 264073 pages shared
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: 240240 pages non-shared
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [ pid ]   uid  tgid total_vm      rss nr_ptes swapents oom_score_adj name
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  241]     0   241    13581     1610      26        0             0 systemd-journal
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  246]     0   246    10494      133      22        0         -1000 systemd-udevd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  264]     0   264    29174      121      26        0         -1000 auditd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  342]     0   342    94449      466      67        0             0 NetworkManager
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  346]     0   346   137495     3125      88        0             0 tuned
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  348]     0   348    79595      726      60        0             0 rsyslogd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  353]    70   353     6986       72      19        0             0 avahi-daemon
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  362]    70   362     6986       58      18        0             0 avahi-daemon
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  378]     0   378     1621       25       8        0             0 iprinit
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  380]     0   380     1621       26       9        0             0 iprupdate
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  384]    81   384     6676      142      18        0          -900 dbus-daemon
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  385]     0   385     8671       83      21        0             0 systemd-logind
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  386]     0   386    31573      153      15        0             0 crond
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  391]   999   391   128531     2440      48        0             0 polkitd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  400]     0   400     9781       23       8        0             0 iprdump
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  419]     0   419    27501       32      10        0             0 agetty
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  855]     0   855    22883      258      43        0             0 master
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [  862]    89   862    22926      254      44        0             0 qmgr
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [23631]     0 23631    20698      211      43        0         -1000 sshd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [12884]     0 12884    81885     3754      80        0             0 firewalld
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18130]     0 18130    33359      291      65        0             0 sshd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18132]  1000 18132    33791      748      64        0             0 sshd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18133]  1000 18133    28867      122      13        0             0 bash
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18428]    99 18428   208627    42909     151        0             0 node
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18486]    89 18486    22909      250      46        0             0 pickup
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18515]  1000 18515   352905   141851     470        0             0 npm
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18520]     0 18520    33359      291      66        0             0 sshd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18522]  1000 18522    33359      294      64        0             0 sshd
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: [18523]  1000 18523    28866      115      12        0             0 bash
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Out of memory: Kill process 18515 (npm) score 559 or sacrifice child
Jul 20 11:05:00 someapp kernel: Killed process 18515 (npm) total-vm:1411620kB, anon-rss:567404kB, file-rss:0kB

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