>> and the first on the chopping block will probably be yours. Unfortunately this often won't be the case. The algorithm used for selection in the oom killer w

>> and the first on the chopping block will probably be yours. Unfortunately this often won't be the case. The algorithm used for selection in the oom killer will try to preserve processes which have accumulated higher CPU time - on a typical server, the most active process will often be the one consuming all the memory. This can lead to a painful situation where critical processes like sshd, or your shell, are killed off to allow more space for the runaway app. Quickly leading to a hard reset being the only recovery option.