Bug 5144

Summary: ext3 memory leaks (size-64 objects)
Product: File System Reporter: Cedric Delfosse (cdelfosse)
Component: ext3Assignee: Andrew Morton (akpm)
Status: CLOSED CODE_FIX    
Severity: high    
Priority: P2    
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Kernel Version: 2.6.12 Subsystem:
Regression: --- Bisected commit-id:
Attachments: /proc/meminfo output
/proc/slabinfo output
slabtop output
mount command output
dmesg command output

Description Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:03:00 UTC 
Most recent kernel where this bug did not occur:
Distribution: Debian GNU/Linux
Hardware Environment: Toshiba laptop
Software Environment: Linux
Problem Description:

I found that my system swap a lot after one day of use.
Looks like the kernel is not freeing the memory it allocates.

I join to this bug /proc/meminfo, /proc/slabinfo, and an output of the slabtop
command.

I already had this problem with older kernel, but I can't tell you precisely
which version.


Steps to reproduce:

Boot Linux, and make lot of filesystem activities (ls -lR /, debootstrap).
My fs is ext3.
Then, slab memory in /proc/meminfo never stop to grow.
Comment 1 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:06:18 UTC 
Created attachment 5789 [details]
/proc/meminfo output
Comment 2 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:07:20 UTC 
Created attachment 5790 [details]
/proc/slabinfo output
Comment 3 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:10:00 UTC 
Created attachment 5791 [details]
slabtop output
Comment 4 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:12:15 UTC 
Created attachment 5792 [details]
mount command output
Comment 5 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:13:09 UTC 
Created attachment 5793 [details]
dmesg command output
Comment 6 Andrew Morton 2005-08-28 14:29:12 UTC 
Are you using htree, or quotas, or extented attributes?
Comment 7 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 14:57:07 UTC 
Not at all.

Here are the EXT3 related parameters for the kernel I use (stock Debian kernel
package with no tuning/tweaking):

CONFIG_EXT3_FS=m
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_SECURITY=y
Comment 8 Andrew Morton 2005-08-28 15:38:20 UTC 
Still, you might be using htree.   Please do

dumpe2fs -h /dev/hdXX
Comment 9 Cedric Delfosse 2005-08-28 15:43:35 UTC 
% /sbin/dumpe2fs -h /dev/hda3
dumpe2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Filesystem volume name:   <none>
Last mounted on:          <not available>
Filesystem UUID:          4492d861-424d-4235-8e70-a962cf3ec465
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype needs_recovery sparse_super
Default mount options:    (none)
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              1889408
Block count:              3777283
Reserved block count:     188864
Free blocks:              286175
Free inodes:              1593822
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
Blocks per group:         32768
Fragments per group:      32768
Inodes per group:         16288
Inode blocks per group:   509
Filesystem created:       Sat Nov  8 20:24:23 2003
Last mount time:          Mon Aug 29 01:36:51 2005
Last write time:          Mon Aug 29 01:36:51 2005
Mount count:              11
Maximum mount count:      36
Last checked:             Sat Aug 13 00:01:46 2005
Check interval:           15552000 (6 months)
Next check after:         Wed Feb  8 23:01:46 2006
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:               128
Journal inode:            8
First orphan inode:       863293
Default directory hash:   tea
Directory Hash Seed:      04e57526-b551-43e1-9c9c-42d5f4e61935
Journal backup:           inode blocks
Comment 10 Andrew Morton 2005-08-28 17:23:35 UTC 
OK, no htree.  Weird, beats me.

Could you please run a -mm kernel (say, 2.6.13-rc6-mm2) which 
contains slab-leak-detector.patch and follow the
instructions in 
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.13-rc6/2.6.13-rc6-mm2/broken-out/slab-leak-detector.patch
?

(Or just apply slab-leak-detector.patch to your favourite kernel)
Comment 11 Cedric Delfosse 2005-09-10 13:31:07 UTC 
Hi,

sorry for the lag, but I was on vacation.

I installed and runned a 2.6.13-rc6-mm2, and with this kernel I have no more
slab leaks !

I tried to patch my Debian 2.6.12 kernel with the slab-leak-detector.patch, but
the patch doesn't apply really well.
Comment 12 Cedric Delfosse 2005-11-19 04:32:44 UTC 
I had this bug with 2.6.13, but it seems it is fixed in 2.6.14 :)
I close the bug.

Regards,