Re: glib memory allocation problems

[Dimitrios Apostolou <jimis gmx net>]

On Tue, 15 May 2007 16:14:26 +0200
Miklos Szeredi <miklos szeredi hu> wrote:
> OK, found the problem: g_thread_init() wasn't called by sshfs, and
> hence the thread private data used by gslice wasn't actually thread
> private.
> 
> Now I see that the mandatory use of g_thread_init() is documented, but
> it's very non-obvious without reading the docs.  And there are no
> apparent problems if it's not called.  Sshfs got away with it for a
> long time even though people do stress it pretty heavily.
> 
> So the question is, should glib not make some sanity checking for code
> that is not actually thread related (like gslice).
> 
> Dimitrios, there's a patch attached that should fix the crashes.
> 
> Thanks,
> Miklos


Thank you Miklos, I am trying the patch now and I'll let you know how it goes. I really hope sshfs won't be crashing again. 

I don't understand some things however, so here are some questions to glib devs: 
1) Why the crash didn't occur when using G_SLICE=always-malloc?
2) I never got any warning when using G_SLICE=debug-blocks, although I reproduced the crash several times. Is it normal?
3) What about the constantly increasing memory usage that I described in my first email, is it expected when using G_SLICE=always-malloc? I was certainly surprised to witness my system crawl down to a halt, because of swapping...


Thanks in advance, 
Dimitris