[ruby-core:18239] Re: Severe problem with garbage collection

Bertram Scharpf wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a really large amount of data here and a Ruby program
> dealing with it. I noticed how this program started to use swap
> space and then, hours later, terminated. Then I watched (Linux
> here) "/proc/$$/statm". Yes, the whole memory was eaten up.
> 
> I know that my program does not have a bug because it is running
> for a year now without complaint. So I downgraded my Ruby from 
> 1.8.6_p230 to 1.8.6_p111 and--voila--the statm output yields
> constant values and the program finishes successfully.
> 
> Sorry, I cannot provide any data because it is from a lawyers
> office and underlies duty of confidentially. I would search on my
> own for the bug if someone could give me a hint where to start
> doing this.

Hi,

I'd start with looking at the changes between 1.8.6_p230 and _p111 to
file gc.c. Should be pretty easy to extract those changes using "svn
diff".

You could also compare the number of allocated objects (using class
ObjectSpace) for both Ruby versions when your program is running. Maybe
there is an anormaly.

You could as well try your program with Ruby 1.9? Maybe it runs. Maybe
it exhibits the same problem.

Or do a binary search over the Ruby versions. Try 1.8.6_p220. If it
works, try 1.8.6_p225, until you find the version which introduced the
"bug". Then use diff to track down the bug even further.

Regards,

   Michael