[Discuss] I need a recommendation for a Linux-compatible high-end PC builder

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2018-01-29 06:27-0800 Cy Schubert wrote:

> In message <alpine.DEB.2.11.1801282249140.18536 at enira.zlyna.ubzr>,
> "Alan W. Irw
> in" writes:
>> On 2018-01-28 21:16-0800 Cy Schubert wrote:
>>
>>> Memory leaks should be fixed. As an O/S developer I appreciate bug
>>> reports, especially detailed bug reports. It all helps.
>>
>> Hi Cy:
>>
>> I completely agree that memory leaks caused by the OS system should be
>> reported.  And I also think such leaks generally are reported and are
>> fixed (at least on OS's based entirely on free software such as Linux
>> and *BSD) thanks to strong community support and appeals like yours.
>> However, that good free software feeling is not so clear for
>> javascript memory leaks created by a set of bad javascript commands
>> created by some anonymous company in webspace. I think such commands
>> do technically qualify as "open source" but not necessarily free
>> software.  However, they are so obfuscated by the many layers of
>> javascript that hierarchically include them, that it makes such issues
>> difficult to fix which is another motivation for using a whitelist
>> approach such as the "noscript" extension for firefox for domains
>> which you trust to have good javascript.
>
> Restart your browser then.

Agreed.  Restarting the application that is leaking
is a workaround for most memory leaks, but that quickly
becomes a pain so ideally noscript helps you avoid javascript
related memory leaks for firefox that are generated by bad javascript
code out there "somewhere on the web".

> Why reboot the machine?

I agree rebooting is obviously not necessary with ordinary
memory leaks unless you cannot find which application is doing it or
the memory leak runs you out of memory so quickly that your system
dies (requiring a reboot) before you can diagnose the problem.

Another kind of memory leak which typically requires a reboot is leaks
of special memory allocated by the kernel within a certain area of
ordinary memory of fixed size (at least for the kernel of 3-years ago
where I encountered one of these types of special kernel memory
leaks).  I have no idea whether modern Linux kernels or the *BSD
kernels ever this fixed memory size technique for allocating special
kinds of memory, and I have forgotten the details. But IIRC, these
special kernel memory types and their size are noted within the
/sys/kernel heirarchy of "files" that are available with Linux so you
have to look at those sizes and see how they grow with time compared
with a healthy Linux system to figure out which kind of special kernel
memory is leaking. But otherwise the only symptom of trouble for this
type of special memory leak was an overall obvious system slowdown
some days after booting, with nothing showing in top or free results
because of that area of ordinary memory of fixed size.  So if anyone
here runs into this set of symptoms, they should consider the
possibility of a special memory leak.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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