'ps' behavoir in Linux - Was - Re: array limits

Brian K. White brian at aljex.com
Mon Apr 19 20:55:05 PDT 2004


Jerry Rains wrote:
> Info from as400linux1 during operations.  See below.
>
> On Sunday 18 April 2004 11:19, Jerry Rains wrote:
>> On Sunday 18 April 2004 11:21, Fairlight wrote:
>>> Y'all catch dis heeyah?  Jerry Rains been jivin' 'bout like:
>>>> Ok, the main problem I seem to have is with the desktop Linux I am
>>>> using. This morning I rebooted the system to shut down any extra
>>>> processes and logged into tty1 and tty2 to start a dclerk process
>>>> then see what was going on.  I did a 'free' command and there was
>>>> no swap memory being used, however with only the two text logins
>>>> dclerk was still swapped out on my system.  The logon header
>>>> confirmed that my system is indeed SuSE 8.2.  Since I only use
>>>> this system for my Desktop needs, I'm not going to worry about why.
>>>>
>>>> My problem is at work so I dialed back in this morning.  The
>>>> system was idle and ps aux worked fine.
>>>>
>>>> SuSE Linux on iSeries -- the spicy solution!
>>>> Have a lot of fun...
>>>> filepro at as400linux1:/var/appl/filepro> w
>>>>   9:13am  up  3:22,  3 users,  load average: 0.07, 0.03, 0.05
>>>>   USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU
>>>>   WHAT root     pts/2    -                 8:50am 23:33   0.00s
>>>>   ?     - filepro  pts/3    -                 9:13am  0.00s  0.64s
>>>>   0.02s  w filepro at as400linux1:/var/appl/filepro> free
>>>>                           total       used       free     shared
>>>> buffers cached
>>>> Mem:       1001668     261940     739728          0      51004
>>>> 127036 -/+ buffers/cache:      83900     917768
>>>>                Swap:       996020          0     996020
>>>>                filepro at as400linux1:/var/appl/filepro> ps aux | grep
>>>> dclerk filepro  14020  7.0  0.1  2480 1204 pts/0    S    09:14
>>>> 0:01 /appl/fp/dclerk vregstr -s1 -h Vregister -d
>>>>                filepro  14038  0.0  0.0  1740  656 pts/3    S
>>>> 09:14 0:00 grep dclerk
>>>>                filepro at as400linux1:/var/appl/filepro>
>>>>
>>>> So the answer is, even though we have 1Gb of memory, we don't have
>>>> enough memory to prevent swapping during operations.  I'll look
>>>> into seeing if I can move some of the memory from the OS400 side
>>>> to the Linux partition.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to all who helped.
>>>
>>> But that doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense, unless you've
>>> confused the issue.  You're saying on SuSE 8.2, you can have zero
>>> swap used, and dclerk is still swapped out.  That's what you said.
>>> At least, that's what I read.
>>>
>>> Then you said that the system at -work- has a gig of memory, and you
>>> point to ps auxww working fine there, and showing arguments, etc.
>>
>> Actually, I used 'ps aux'  I didn't have to use 'ps auxw' or 'ps
>> auxww'
>>
>>>  IOW, the process is not swapped out--on a totally different system.
>>>
>>> The question is, why did you show stats from the iSeries that
>>> -isn't- having problems instead of stats from the system that -is-
>>> having problems?
>>
>> Because I first noticed the problem on the iseries.  I was only
>> using my home system because it was convenient and it seemed to have
>> the same problem.
>>
>>> FWIW, I'm seriously questioning why 8.2 would be swapping out
>>> dclerk. What kernel revision comes up in `uname -a` on the 8.2
>>> system, out of curiosity?
>>
>> I included that in one or two of the emails, but here it is again.
>>
>> jmrains at Coastal:~> uname -a
>> Linux Coastal 2.4.20-4GB #1 Mon Mar 17 17:54:44 UTC 2003 i686 unknown
>> unknown GNU/Linux
>> jmrains at Coastal:~>
>>
>>> If it's old enough, it could be a mutant <2.4.15 system, and then
>>> this would start making a hell of a lot more sense, given the VM
>>> model issues extant through that period.  Indeed, I heard many
>>> reports of processes being swapped out in favour of disk cache (a
>>> la Windows) in the earlier days of the 2.4 tree's new VM, notably
>>> from 2.4.3 through 2.4.16.  "Have you done an update of the kernel
>>> on that system to the latest revision?" would be my next question.
>>
>> I used Synaptic to update the system after I installed it about 6
>> weeks ago. I don't think that updated the kernel.  I'll do another
>> update and see if that helps.
>>
>>> Show the `free` output from -that- system.
>>
>> jmrains at Coastal:~> free
>>              total       used       free     shared    buffers
>> cached Mem:        254820     250896       3924          0
>> 5652      45952 -/+ buffers/cache:     199292      55528
>> Swap:       257032      50556     206476
>> jmrains at Coastal:~>
>>
>>> You have a gig of memory available on the iSeries, that's apparently
>>> -not- having issues, and you want to toss more at it,
>>
>> The info you saw from the iseries was taken yesterday morning while
>> the business was closed and the system was idling.  I mentioned that
>> in my email. I noticed the problem while we were operating with
>> about 35 users.
>>
>> Jerry
>
> This info was taken today.  Notice that there are 2 *clerk processes
> that have full arguments, but the rest only have [rclerk].  The two
> with full arguments were both started from scripts from the command
> line, although later in the day a 3rd one showed up that I wasn't
> familiar with, but I suspect it also started from a script, however,
> I suspect that it was an F5 menu script.  I haven't pinned this down
> yet.
>
> 'free' shows that there was no swapping going on (see below).
>
> Most of the [rclerk] processes below were started from standard
> filePro menus.
>
> as400linux1> ps aux | grep clerk
> filepro   1101  0.0  0.0  2000  984 pts/5    S    07:50   0:00
> [rclerk] filepro   1257  0.0  0.0  1996  884 pts/9    S    07:51
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   1644  0.0  0.0  2000  896 pts/15   S    07:54
> 0:01 [rclerk] filepro   1724  0.0  0.1  2260 1376 pts/17   S    07:55
> 0:10 [rclerk] filepro   1765  0.0  0.1  2528 1524 pts/0    S    07:55
> 0:11 [rclerk] filepro   3049  0.0  0.0  2000  948 pts/21   S    08:08
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   3150  0.0  0.0  2044 1000 pts/39   S    08:09
> 0:03 [rclerk] filepro   3202  0.0  0.1  2160 1152 pts/41   S    08:09
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   3759  0.0  0.1  2280 1344 pts/42   S    08:16
> 0:04 [rclerk] filepro   5405  0.0  0.0  2000  924 pts/48   S    08:31
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   5479  0.0  0.0  2000  912 pts/49   S    08:31
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   7734  0.0  0.0  2008  956 pts/30   S    08:48
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  10592  0.0  0.1  2244 1288 pts/46   S    09:11
> 0:04 [rclerk] filepro  10933  0.0  0.0  2008  936 pts/53   S    09:12
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  16531  0.0  0.1  2028 1048 pts/54   S    10:03
> 0:01 [rclerk] filepro  21042  0.0  0.0  2000  888 pts/51   S    10:47
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  21177  0.0  0.1  2036 1004 pts/4    S    10:48
> 0:00 /appl/fp/rclerk tasktimer -s0 -h Task Timer -d -xif
> filepro  21271  0.0  0.1  2516 1516 pts/52   S    10:49   0:10
> [rclerk] filepro  21337  0.0  0.1  2068 1124 pts/58   S    10:50
> 0:05 [rclerk] filepro  22528  0.0  0.0  2000  948 pts/31   S    11:00
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  22848  0.0  0.1  2092 1116 pts/3    S    11:02
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  23052  0.0  0.1  2160 1168 pts/35   S    11:04
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  24233  0.0  0.1  2112 1128 pts/44   S    11:19
> 0:01 [rclerk] filepro  27570  0.0  0.1  2444 1492 pts/6    S    11:56
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  27694  0.0  0.0  2000  944 pts/12   S    11:58
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  29240  0.0  0.1  2080 1132 pts/1    S    12:21
> 0:06 [rclerk] filepro  29682  0.0  0.0  2008  936 pts/26   S    12:28
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro    486  0.0  0.0  2044  976 pts/18   S    13:14
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   4140  0.0  0.1  2468 1516 pts/14   S    14:00
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   4168  0.0  0.0  2000  884 pts/8    S    14:00
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   4429  0.0  0.1  2204 1228 pts/28   S    14:04
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   5343  0.0  0.0  2000  892 pts/20   S    14:17
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   6069  0.0  0.1  2084 1176 pts/38   S    14:27
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   6540  0.0  0.0  2000  912 pts/32   S    14:33
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   6652  0.0  0.0  2048  972 pts/40   S    14:34
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   6714  0.0  0.0  2032  948 pts/10   S    14:35
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   7256  0.0  0.0  2000  868 pts/37   S    14:43
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   7536  0.0  0.0  2044  976 pts/19   S    14:46
> 0:01 [rclerk] filepro   7850  0.0  0.0  2044  984 pts/43   S    14:51
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro   8013  0.1  0.1  2060 1120 pts/2    S    14:53
> 0:02 [rclerk] filepro   8077  5.4  0.1  2088 1152 pts/16   S    14:54
> 1:24 [rclerk] filepro  11816  0.0  0.1  2228 1240 pts/60   S    15:06
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  12474  0.0  0.1  2228 1252 pts/47   S    15:12
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  13010  0.0  0.0  2044  996 pts/36   S    15:15
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  13077  0.1  0.1  2160 1148 pts/56   S    15:15
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  13301  0.1  0.1  2196 1228 pts/22   S    15:17
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  13441  0.1  0.1  2052 1060 pts/13   S    15:18
> 0:00 [rclerk] filepro  13715 16.7  0.1  2480 1204 pts/27   S    15:19
> 0:02 /appl/fp/dclerk vregstr -s1 -h Vregister -d
> filepro  13774  0.0  0.0  1740  688 pts/33   S    15:20   0:00 grep
> clerk
>
> as400linux1> free
>              total       used       free     shared    buffers
> cached Mem:       1001668     996708       4960          0      66832
> 630760 -/+ buffers/cache:     299116     702552
> Swap:       996020          0     996020
>
> as400linux1> uname -a
> Linux as400linux1 2.4.19-ul1-iseries64-SMP #1 SMP Wed Apr 16 10:24:17
> UTC 2003 ppc64 unknown

install ttysnoop, which requires changing the telnet server command line in
inetd.conf or /etc/xinetd/telnet

then ttysnoop on a few of those tty's and see if there really is a process
there or if this is all junk from some process that hangs or ungracefully
broken tcp connections etc...

or just test by yourself by opening more than one session, get the tty of
one of them, start an rclerk process, then in the other window look for that
tty in ps.

pretty odd though, if they are supposed to represent swapped out, yet no
swap is being used...

Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro BBx  Linux SCO  Prosper/FACTS AutoCAD  #callahans Satriani




More information about the Filepro-list mailing list