What criteria does the Linux OOM Killer use to select a process for termination?

The Linux OOM Killer selects a process to terminate based on several criteria to free memory and maintain system operation:

• Memory consumed by the process — processes that use the most memory are more likely to be killed.
• OOM score (process score) — calculated based on memory usage and process priority.
• Process priority (nice value) — processes with lower priority are more likely to be chosen.
• Importance of the process to the system — system processes and high-priority processes are usually protected.

Thus, the OOM Killer tries to terminate the process that frees the most memory with minimal damage to the system.