Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 23:00:34 +0100 From: "Gary Palmer" <gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG> To: "Mr Sean Batson A.C.P." <valtech@caribnet.net> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free(); Message-ID: <4978.830642434@palmer.demon.co.uk> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 27 Apr 1996 17:43:16 EDT." <318294F4.41C67EA6@caribnet.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
"Mr Sean Batson A.C.P." wrote in message ID
<318294F4.41C67EA6@caribnet.net>:
> While using the Netscape 3.0 browser i realise the swap space is always
> reducing and never increasing. Could it a case of malloc(); malloc();
> and no calls to free();free(); which eats the swap area up?
> I this is so, when would there be a correction this problem?
Possibly. What version of the X server are you running? Unless it's
quite recent (i.e. before XFree86 3.12) you'll be relying on the
malloc()/free() in libc, which in 2.1-stable and before had a problem
in that it didn't return memory to the system until the process
exited. As Netscape does intensive bitmap requests to the server, it
tends to do quite a lot of malloc()ing and free()ing, resulting in a
creeping memory usage. Depending on BSDI's malloc(), Netscape itself
could have the same problem.
Partial Solution: either relink your X server to use -lgnumalloc, or
upgrade to a later version which is linked with GNU
malloc already.
Messy Solution: quit X every so often and reload it.
The problem is addressed in 2.2 which a new malloc/free (phkmalloc),
but since Netscape is statically linked on BSDI's BSD/OS, we depend on
them having a non-leaking malloc... (AFAIK)
Gary
--
Gary Palmer FreeBSD Core Team Member
FreeBSD - Turning PC's into workstations. See http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/ for info.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4978.830642434>