I've looked into these in the past but I deemed them a too much of a hassle. I don't know what files I care about. The solution I'm proposing is simpler and doesn't require any daemons or figuring out the files I need.
// gcc -std=c99 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -g -o eatmem eatmem.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
int limit = 123456789;
if (argc >= 2) limit = atoi(argv[1]);
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
for (int i = 1; i <= limit; i++) {
memset(malloc(1 << 20), 1, 1 << 20);
printf("\rAllocated %5d MiB.", i);
}
sleep(10000);
return 0;
}
$ gcc -std=c99 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -g -o eatmem eatmem.c
$ ./eatmem
Allocated 31118 MiB.Killed
$ ./eatmem 31110
Allocated 31110 MiB.