[PATCH] mm/oom_kill: add sysctl_oom_dump_stack to control kernel stack dumping on OOM
From: Yang Xin
Date: Thu Dec 11 2025 - 15:24:38 EST
Most OOM kills triggered by user-space processes produce kernel stack
traces that are not helpful for diagnosing the root cause. These traces
usually just show the page fault handler or system call entry.
Furthermore, dump_stack() can be expensive. It often runs with
interrupts disabled or holds the console lock for a long time,
potentially causing system latencies and preventing the system from
responding to other events.
This patch adds a new sysctl vm.oom_dump_stack to control this
behavior. Writing '0' to /proc/sys/vm/oom_dump_stack suppresses the
kernel stack dump during OOM kills, while '1' (the default) preserves
the existing behavior.
Signed-off-by: Yang Xin <redleaf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/oom_kill.c | 12 +++++++++++-
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/mm/oom_kill.c b/mm/oom_kill.c
index 5eb11fbba704..a51dbd2e6912 100644
--- a/mm/oom_kill.c
+++ b/mm/oom_kill.c
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
static int sysctl_panic_on_oom;
static int sysctl_oom_kill_allocating_task;
static int sysctl_oom_dump_tasks = 1;
+static int sysctl_oom_dump_stack = 1;
/*
* Serializes oom killer invocations (out_of_memory()) from all contexts to
@@ -464,7 +465,9 @@ static void dump_header(struct oom_control *oc)
if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_COMPACTION) && oc->order)
pr_warn("COMPACTION is disabled!!!\n");
- dump_stack();
+ if (sysctl_oom_dump_stack)
+ dump_stack();
+
if (is_memcg_oom(oc))
mem_cgroup_print_oom_meminfo(oc->memcg);
else {
@@ -736,6 +739,13 @@ static const struct ctl_table vm_oom_kill_table[] = {
.mode = 0644,
.proc_handler = proc_dointvec,
},
+ {
+ .procname = "oom_dump_stack",
+ .data = &sysctl_oom_dump_stack,
+ .maxlen = sizeof(sysctl_oom_dump_stack),
+ .mode = 0644,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dointvec,
+ },
};
#endif
--
2.30.2