[hollerith]

>On a laptop or desktop PC, you don't need to power cycle in a near-OOM: use the magic SysRq key.

Thanks for the tip! If my Linux were ever to start locking up regularly, I will apply it.

But right now (so I don't have to give up the use to which I currently put my SysRq key) I would prefer some method for determining after I forcefully powered down the computer, then powered up again, whether the lockup or slow-down that motivated the force-power-down was caused by a near-OOM condition.

Do you happen to have a tip for that?

[rnhmjoj]

I don't think so, sorry. The kernel emits a few messages when an OOM is detected, including the tasks killed to free memory, but in a near-OOM probably nothing: the system is technically still working normally, though very slowly.