scripts/link-vmlinux.sh: line 45 : killed make error 137

Compiling custom kernel in debian threw the following error.

scripts/link-vmlinux.sh: line 45 : killed [makefile:1054:vmlinux] Error 137

There was no point looking for errors in the script file as it is standard script of the kernel source and chances of it being wrong is very remote, so the issue had to be in the system where it was being compiled. A look at the system log using dmesg showed the issue was

Out of memory: kill process 10761(ld)

As the compilation was being done in a virtual machine, the default value of RAM was set to 1 GB, which was not enough. So increasing the RAM to 4GB and recompiling the kernel was all that was needed.