From owner-freebsd-stable Wed May 19 9: 3: 6 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from point.osg.gov.bc.ca (point.osg.gov.bc.ca [142.32.102.44]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50F9114C28 for ; Wed, 19 May 1999 09:03:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by point.osg.gov.bc.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) id IAA06044; Wed, 19 May 1999 08:24:32 -0700 Received: from passer.osg.gov.bc.ca(142.32.110.29) via SMTP by point.osg.gov.bc.ca, id smtpda06042; Wed May 19 08:24:17 1999 Received: (from uucp@localhost) by passer.osg.gov.bc.ca (8.9.3/8.9.1) id IAA00647; Wed, 19 May 1999 08:22:10 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199905191522.IAA00647@passer.osg.gov.bc.ca> Received: from localhost.osg.gov.bc.ca(127.0.0.1), claiming to be "passer.osg.gov.bc.ca" via SMTP by localhost.osg.gov.bc.ca, id smtpdiGl629; Wed May 19 08:21:34 1999 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 Reply-To: Cy Schubert - ITSD Open Systems Group X-OS: FreeBSD 3.1-RELEASE X-Sender: cschuber To: "Ilya Balashov" Cc: "Greg Quinlan" , freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Memory leaks & kernel panic/reboot & ahc reboot In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 19 May 1999 15:07:13 +0400." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 08:21:34 -0700 From: Cy Schubert Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In message , "Ilya Balashov" writes: > > That is it!!!!!! > > > > Here is output 'top' after 1 day. This could easily cause a panic/reboot > > once swap has run-out and may also be related to the ahc reboot > > problem, and > > kernel panic reboots I have been experiencing. > > > > I am starting to see a common thread....... I use the 'ahc' controller. > > > > This can easily be reproduced..... > reproduce is too easy.... > reboot system... > run "top"... and remember free memory... > run "tar cvf /dev/null /usr" > run "top" again... and almost all free memory LEAKED !!!! Don't use top, use vmstat! Vmstat is a better tool for monitoring VM performance. The memory is used by buffers which will eventually be reassigned for use by other buffers, named objects, or anonymous objects. Run vmstat 5. Then fire up something large like netscape, tripwire, or view an email with HTML in it using exmh2. Then terminate the application. You will see the free pool grow to some large number. It will appear to "leak" away as the system uses memory. The system will not free those pages until fre goes below a threshold. When it does free the pages you will see a number of pages in the sr (scan rate) or fr (freed) columns, which will eventually become zero and the system cycles through the whole "process" again while running the next application. Of course the more memory you have the longer it will take reach the threshold and less work will be required by the system to keep the free pool size above the threshold. To determine whether you have a memory leak, periodically perform a swapinfo -k. If you notice the amount of swap space being used constantly rising, you may have a memory leak. To determine whether you have a kernel memory leak you will need to watch wired in top or systat. Regards, Phone: (250)387-8437 Cy Schubert Fax: (250)387-5766 Open Systems Group Internet: Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca ITSD Cy.Schubert@gems8.gov.bc.ca Province of BC "e**(i*pi)+1=0" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message