Just gitk
or gitk --all
can try to fill up all memory on big repository.
I know than I can gitk -n 1000
to limit it. Also I can killall git
(or even Alt+SysRq+F if haven't stopped it in time) to stop it in middle of thrashing.
Is there more proper way to make gitk don't load more commits and stop it's git subprocess without hacks or lengthy gitk restart?
You can also limit gitk by branchname. Instead of using gitk --all to see all branches, just use 'gitk branchname'. This might limit the range of commits.