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Android Low Memory Killer Daemon

The Android Low Memory Killer Daemon (lmkd) monitors memory usage in Android systems and terminates non-essential processes under high memory pressure to maintain performance. It replaces the kernel lowmemorykiller driver since Linux Kernel 4.12 and can be configured through various Android properties to adapt its behavior based on the device's memory capacity. Key properties include thresholds for killing processes based on memory pressure levels and settings for logging and reporting process kills.

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44 views2 pages

Android Low Memory Killer Daemon

The Android Low Memory Killer Daemon (lmkd) monitors memory usage in Android systems and terminates non-essential processes under high memory pressure to maintain performance. It replaces the kernel lowmemorykiller driver since Linux Kernel 4.12 and can be configured through various Android properties to adapt its behavior based on the device's memory capacity. Key properties include thresholds for killing processes based on memory pressure levels and settings for logging and reporting process kills.

Uploaded by

tonny
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Android Low Memory Killer Daemon

Introduction
Android Low Memory Killer Daemon (lmkd) is a process monitoring memory state of a running Android system and
reacting to high memory pressure by killing the least essential process(es) to keep system performing at acceptable
levels.

Background
Historically on Android systems memory monitoring and killing of non-essential processes was handled by a kernel
lowmemorykiller driver. Since Linux Kernel 4.12 the lowmemorykiller driver has been removed and instead
userspace lmkd daemon performs these tasks.

Android Properties
lmkd can be configured on a particular system using the following Android properties:
ro.config.low_ram : choose between low-memory vs high-performance device. Default = false.

ro.lmk.use_minfree_levels : use free memory and file cache thresholds for making decisions when to
kill. This mode works the same way kernel lowmemorykiller driver used to work. Default = false
ro.lmk.low : min oom_adj score for processes eligible to be killed at low vmpressure level. Default = 1001
(disabled)
ro.lmk.medium : min oom_adj score for processes eligible to be killed at medium vmpressure level. Default
= 800 (non-essential processes)
ro.lmk.critical : min oom_adj score for processes eligible to be killed at critical vmpressure level. Default
= 0 (all processes)
ro.lmk.critical_upgrade : enables upgrade to critical level. Default = false

ro.lmk.upgrade_pressure : max mem_pressure at which level will be upgraded because system is


swapping too much. Default = 100 (disabled)
ro.lmk.downgrade_pressure : min mem_pressure at which vmpressure event will be ignored because
enough free memory is still available. Default = 100 (disabled)
ro.lmk.kill_heaviest_task : kill heaviest eligible task (best decision) vs. any eligible task (fast decision).
Default = false
ro.lmk.kill_timeout_ms : duration in ms after a kill when no additional kill will be done. Default = 0
(disabled)
ro.lmk.debug : enable lmkd debug logs, Default = false

ro.lmk.swap_free_low_percentage : level of free swap as a percentage of the total swap space used as
a threshold to consider the system as swap space starved. Default for low-RAM devices = 10, for high-end
devices = 20
ro.lmk.thrashing_limit : number of workingset refaults as a percentage of the file-backed pagecache
size used as a threshold to consider system thrashing its pagecache. Default for low-RAM devices = 30, for
high-end devices = 100
ro.lmk.thrashing_limit_decay : thrashing threshold decay expressed as a percentage of the original
threshold used to lower the threshold when system does not recover even after a kill. Default for low-RAM
devices = 50, for high-end devices = 10
ro.lmk.psi_partial_stall_ms : partial PSI stall threshold in milliseconds for triggering low memory
notification. Default for low-RAM devices = 200, for high-end devices = 70
ro.lmk.psi_complete_stall_ms : complete PSI stall threshold in milliseconds for triggering critical
memory notification. Default = 700
ro.lmk.pressure_after_kill_min_score : min oom_adj_score score threshold for cycle after kill used
to allow blocking of killing critical processes when not enough memory was freed in a kill cycle. Default score
= 0.
ro.lmk.direct_reclaim_threshold_ms : direct reclaim duration threshold in milliseconds to consider
the system as stuck in direct reclaim. Default = 0 (disabled)
ro.lmk.swap_compression_ratio : swap average compression ratio to be used when estimating how
much data can be swapped. Setting it to 0 will ignore available memory and assume that configured swap
size can be always utilized fully. Default = 1 (no compression).
ro.lmk.lowmem_min_oom_score : min oom_score_adj level used to select processes to kill when memory
is critically low. Setting it to 1001 will prevent any kills for this reason. Min acceptable value is 201 (apps up to
perceptible). Default = 701 (all cached apps excluding the last active one).
lmkd will set the following Android properties according to current system configurations:
sys.lmk.minfree_levels : minfree:oom_adj_score pairs, delimited by comma

sys.lmk.reportkills : whether or not it supports reporting process kills to clients. Test app should check
this property before testing low memory kill notification. Default will be unset.

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