At 15:50 2002-03-15 +0700, Kevin Myers did say:
Mmm. This is the second time I've sent an item to this list,
Hmm, and people saw it the first fine, believe it or not. I haven't
receieved too many 128MB emails recently, nor do I run a mail server on
just 64MB of physical memory (well, my mail servers are more than just
email - in the olden days, I did just fine with 64MB of memory though).
or is it that no one knows what I'm talking about?
I'm going to guess that it's because nobody else is experiencing this problem.
You omitted version and platform information, as well as *ANY* info on the
message itself (oh, for instance, was it large?). There was no indication
that you were running with VERBOSE logging (including in the sandbox tests).
Certain 2.4.x Linux kernels have issues with virtual memory. I understand
some are *VERY* picky about the exact size of the swap in relation to
physical memory (but that's a _performance_ issue, not a showstopper).
See the list archives:
<http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/procmail>
Search on "out of memory allocate" and you should get a fair number of hits
to read up on.
>Mar 13 16:12:37 pc procmail[1722]: Out of memory as I tried to allocate
>134592524 bytes
>Mar 13 16:12:43 pc procmail[1736]: Out of memory as I tried to allocate
>134592524 bytes
FTR, that precise number is just a shred over 128MB, which may or may not
exceed your combined physical and swap size (though your swap should
probably be 2X physical). I dunno why procmail would be trying to allocate
so much memory unless the input message were large (which could rapidly
happen in the event of a mail loop), or if there were a physical memory
problem.
>However, after rebooting the server (which I hadn't done for 67 days) it
>works perfectly again, with no errors at all. (Apart from a writing one
>which I know about)
The last time I rebooted any of my servers was in excess of 120 days ago
(and ironically, that was to add memory to a server just because memory is
so darned cheap). Prior to that, it was something on the order of a year
(upgraded the system board), and prior to that, something in excess of 600
days (which encounters the uptime rollover bug).
>The output from 'top' shows that there is swap space available, the machine
>has 64MB of ram.
"There is swap space available" isn't the same as "enough swap space
available."
Open another terminal and run 'vmstat 5', then switch to the first terminal
and run your procmail test in the sandbox.
>I've seen references to memory errors in the past, but I'm not sure how to
>apply those to my particular case. What should I be looking for here?
I'd start with more info about the message that triggers the error, and
details about your specific system configuration.
top -b -n1 > topinfofile
would dump a useful process and memory snapshot for you to review.
---
Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering
Procmail disclaimer: <http://www.professional.org/procmail/disclaimer.html>
Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies. I'll get my copy from the list.
_______________________________________________
procmail mailing list
procmail(_at_)lists(_dot_)RWTH-Aachen(_dot_)DE
http://MailMan.RWTH-Aachen.DE/mailman/listinfo/procmail