what does a python process return code -9 mean?

python linux exit
guettli picture guettli · Aug 30, 2013 · Viewed 15.1k times · Source

I have a python script which returns the exit status of -9.

I tried to get the root of the problem with the atexit module, but it does not get called.

Any hints to help me find why and where my script terminates?

The problem is reproducible, operating system: linux 3.7.10

Answer

guettli picture guettli · Aug 30, 2013

The script was killed by the operating system. Negative return values are the signal number which was used to kill the process.

The script needed too much memory. I found this in syslog:

Out of memory: Kill process 26184 (python) score 439 or sacrifice child
Killed process 26184 (python) total-vm:628772kB, anon-rss:447660kB, file-rss:0kB

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