[Mailman-Users] Python process size grows 30x in 8 hours (memory

[Fletcher Cocquyt]

Last night I added 
ulimit -v 50000 

To the /etc/init.d/mailman script and restarted

And I am seeing the processes stop growing at 49M - and so far no adverse
affects.

I view this as a workaround until the underlying cause is determined...
But it also allows me to bump my incoming runners from 8 to 16 and
manage/enforce the overall memory footprint - I like it (so far)


last pid:  8371;  load averages:  0.07,  0.11,  0.16
08:57:41
91 processes:  90 sleeping, 1 on cpu
CPU states: 98.2% idle,  0.5% user,  1.3% kernel,  0.0% iowait,  0.0% swap
Memory: 1640M real, 792M free, 697M swap in use, 2602M swap free

   PID USERNAME LWP PRI NICE  SIZE   RES STATE    TIME    CPU COMMAND
  7565 mailman    1  59    0   49M   46M sleep    0:07  0.01% python
  7571 mailman    1  59    0   35M   31M sleep    0:04  0.01% python
  7551 mailman    1  59    0   35M   32M sleep    0:18  0.02% python
  7554 mailman    1  59    0   31M   27M sleep    0:22  0.02% python
  7568 mailman    1  59    0   31M   28M sleep    0:03  0.01% python
  7574 mailman    1  59    0   30M   28M sleep    0:03  0.01% python
  7570 mailman    1  59    0   30M   27M sleep    0:14  0.01% python
  7560 mailman    1  59    0   30M   27M sleep    0:12  0.15% python
  7562 mailman    1  59    0   27M   25M sleep    0:03  0.02% python
  7566 mailman    1  59    0   27M   25M sleep    0:03  0.01% python
  7569 mailman    1  59    0   27M   25M sleep    0:04  0.01% python
  7561 mailman    1  59    0   27M   24M sleep    0:03  0.01% python
  7558 mailman    1  59    0   26M   24M sleep    0:19  0.02% python
  7572 mailman    1  59    0   26M   23M sleep    0:03  0.01% python
  7567 mailman    1  59    0   26M   23M sleep    0:03  0.01% python


On 7/1/08 11:43 PM, "Fletcher Cocquyt" <fcocquyt at stanford.edu> wrote:

> Hey thanks, I really appreciated the responsiveness, and helpful analysis by
> the folks on this list
> 
> BTW I am experimenting with ulimit -v to limit the growth of mailman procs
> (added it to the init script)
> Will see what the growth looks like overnight and report back - thanks
> 
> 
> 
> On 7/1/08 10:21 PM, "Brad Knowles" <brad at shub-internet.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 7/1/08, Fletcher Cocquyt wrote:
>> 
>>>  Fletcher Cocquyt
>>>  Senior Systems Administrator
>>>  Information Resources and Technology (IRT)
>>>  Stanford University School of Medicine
>> 
>> BTW, in case it hasn't come through yet -- I am very sensitive to
>> your issues.  In my "real" life, I am currently employed as a Sr.
>> System Administrator at the University of Texas at Austin, with about
>> ~50,000 students and ~20,000 faculty and staff, and one of my jobs is
>> helping out with both the mail system administration and the mailing
>> list system administration.
>> 
>> So, just because I post messages quoting the current statistics we're
>> seeing on python.org, that doesn't mean I'm not sensitive to the
>> problems you're seeing.  All I'm saying is that we're not currently
>> seeing them on python.org, so it may be a bit more difficult for us
>> to directly answer your questions, although we'll certainly do
>> everything we can do help.

-- 
Fletcher Cocquyt
Senior Systems Administrator
Information Resources and Technology (IRT)
Stanford University School of Medicine

Email: fcocquyt at stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 724-7485