From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 30 11:27:18 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4E6E106567A for ; Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-current@m.gmane.org) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C7978FC12 for ; Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-current@m.gmane.org) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1KZObq-0002qU-3J for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:14 +0000 Received: from 78-1-86-65.adsl.net.t-com.hr ([78.1.86.65]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:14 +0000 Received: from ivoras by 78-1-86-65.adsl.net.t-com.hr with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:14 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org From: Ivan Voras Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:27:06 +0200 Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig1AC820626EC19428EE08A86A" X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 78-1-86-65.adsl.net.t-com.hr User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Windows/20080708) In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.7 Sender: news Subject: Re: System, diagnose thyself: auto-documentation for crashes X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:27:18 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig1AC820626EC19428EE08A86A Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Kirk Strauser wrote: > I was having flaky system problems that were driving me to distraction.= =20 > Yesterday, I finally got a panic message with an instruction pointer, > used addr2line to see that the failure was in uma_zfree_internal, > searched Google, and learned that it was probably due to bad RAM. Half= > any hour later, memtest86 found the defective stick and the problem was= > solved. >=20 > This led me to thinking, though: the OS already had all the information= > needed to figure out where the problem was. If there had been an > explanation inside that function definition, FreeBSD could have > automatically gone to the file, searched for that explanation, and told= > me why my system had probably crashed. There's a "small" problem here - to validate something like this you need an AI or at least an expert system. It's purely coincidence that you found someone else with bad RAM crashing in the same function and byitself it doesn't mean anything. The exact same failure could be caused by almost any serious problem: * bad CPU or overheating * bad motherboard/bus * compiler generating bad code * simply, a code bug. The next time someone reads about "crash in uma_zfree_internal" he could have an overheated CPU and will spend days swapping and testing RAM :) =46rom the other side, bad RAM can manifest in practically infinite ways,= as you discovered before you hit uma_zfree_internal. --------------enig1AC820626EC19428EE08A86A Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAki5LooACgkQldnAQVacBcgQJQCff2sfdxbyLj5HVLNBfptJj5ld ZjsAn2AQhdrcHA2IFqVMxuRmIVtv9AGr =snLL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig1AC820626EC19428EE08A86A--